On Song International is a group that showcases artists. On Twitter, a common music discovery place for me, we corresponded and I joined their Facebook group. There I met artist Surianne. Surianne lives in Gibraltar and she will transport you with her music. When looking for a song, “Mamma” stood out to me with the strong opening and high level of power throughout. Click play on the video below and read the story behind the song. Surianne also has a video on her YouTube channel with the band playing this song.
Story Behind Mamma
‘Guess I know better, yes I know it all. Never listen ma’ even when I’m wrong. You know me too well, I’m yours after all. Besides the heartache, you’ll never close that door’ Lyrics from ‘Mamma’, written and composed by Surianne
Hello my name Surianne. I am a singer – songwriter from a little piece of British rock that floats in Mediterranean Sea, at the Southern tip of Europe, called ‘Gibraltar’. You might have heard about it before – or maybe not? Well, please allow me to fill you in… Gibraltar is one of the Pillars of Hercules. It is rich in culture, history, flora & fauna and
flaunts of having the grooviest tailless macaques, known as the Barbary Apes, in town. With over 30,000 habitants, in a small space of only 6.7km2, as you may well imagine, it is quite densely populated.
Being a family oriented country, where regular gatherings, lunches, teas and dinners usually take place at your mother’s home and with abundance of food, drink, chit and chatter, you can not really get away with anything. In fact, to a certain extent, almost everyone knows each other in Gibraltar and news, good, bad and fake, spreads fast.
Especially to your mother’s ears! Don’t get me wrong. I really do enjoy family gatherings. Helping myself to large
portions of delicious home cooked meals, as take outs from my mothers fridge straight to my very own, is a sacred ritual. Therefore, and so to continue making the most of my mothers generosity and her fridge, remaining in mums good books is at the top of my priorities.
As the story goes, one Saturday evening, I was performing at my favourite hub in Gibraltar called The Jazz Cafe – which I strongly recommend if you ever visit Gibraltar and want to enjoy tasty cocktails, good food and a friendly atmosphere. Mum had insisted that I should perform a cover version of Michael Jackson’s old time classic
‘Ben’. Of course I could not disagree, there was food at stake! I introduced ‘Ben’ and explained to the crowd that performing this song was not by choice but to satisfy my mother and my empty stomach. Of course, mum sat there
looking very pleased, listening attentively to my acoustic rendition of Ben. It was after my gig as I packed up my gear, that I was asked by a guest to write a song about my mother and her fridge. She had found the whole story hilarious and thought that it would make good content for a song and this my friends, is how ’Mamma’ was born.
Is pleasing loved ones, through music, for the glory of food, a sin? To this I add that my mother does fill up my heart in many different ways. After all, I can only be thankful for her unconditional love, this being the main source of inspiration behind ‘Mamma’. Please feel free to comment. I have studio time scheduled in the next couple of months and ‘Mamma’ has made it to the list of songs to be recorded. So if you would like to keep updated with the latest news, music and Vlogs, please follow, like and subscribe to my social media platforms listed below. Thank you for reading.
Keep on smiling, Surianne.