Jay by Jay Moussa-Mann
Growing up in a conservative community meant that Jay self-censored her songwriting all her life. “I was scared of being anything. Of being my true self” she says. In 2020 she finally made a decision to start writing the pop album she'd always dreamed of writing, a collection of songs exploring themes of empowerment and new beginnings and breaking free of the constructs holding her back.
After being awarded the Do It Differently Fund through Help Musicians, Jay worked with ingenious producer Patrick Jordan (Young Rebel Set, Cattle & Cane) to create the 10-track pop album. The album includes “American Tennessee,” one of the first songs to be recorded, which has since made it to the semi-finals of the International Song Writing Contest out of 20,000+ entries, won Track of the Week on BBC Tees and was in the roundup of BBC Introducing Tees Best of 2021.
Jay has lived quite internationally, spending most of her childhood in Turkey, studying as a teenager in Sevenoaks, UK, taking a year out as a TV trainee in Copenhagen, then back to Turkey for a bit before finally ending up back down the road from Stockton in Middlesbrough. The album has one or two nods to moments of Jay’s past life in Turkey, “One Summer’s Day” a coming-of-age track about a romance that never happened and “Seventeen” journals the feeling of being 17 again through dance-pop lyrical mix of Turkish and English, bringing together Jay’s two cultural identities.
Tracklist
| 1. | American Tennessee | 3:45 |
| 2. | Green Toyota | 3:34 |
| 3. | War | 3:39 |
| 4. | One Summer's Day | 3:25 |
| 5. | White Like You | 3:22 |
| 6. | Speak Now (ft. Patrick Jordan) | 3:58 |
| 7. | The Greatest Escape (Ever) | 3:02 |
| 8. | Seventeen | 3:12 |
| 9. | One Summer's Day (The Other Story) | 4:08 |
| 10. | Contradiction of Existence | 3:14 |
Credits
Producer: Patrick Jordan
Writer: Jay Moussa-Mann
Arrangement: Jay Moussa-Mann, Patrick Jordan
'Speak Now' written by Patrick Jordan and Jay Moussa-Mann
Supported by Help Musicians Do It Differently Fund
License
All rights reserved.Tags
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Jay’s catchy hooks & emotive lyrics draw on her life living in Turkey & the UK to create something quite unique. Her songs have been played on BBC 6 Music, Amazing Radio & BBC Introducing.
Her single ‘American Tennessee’ was in the roundup of BBC Introducing Tees Best of 2021 & was in the last 50 semi-finalists for the Road to Nashville International Song Contest, chosen out of 20,305 entries.