Emerging new Welsh singer/songwriter Ela has released her first single from her forthcoming EP, Unfurl entitled Our Summer.
The London-based performer who hails from Brongest near Cardigan and also grew up in Monmouth credits her musical father with helping her from a very young age to learn to play music and to sing, but above all, to work hard. This inspired and enabled her to win a coveted music scholarship where she decided to focus on the freedom of expression she found in singing.
Of her father, Ela says
“He’s definitely one of my biggest musical inspirations because he taught me how to tell a story whilst singing which I think is super important.”
Ela Collaborates With Amy Wadge on Award-Winning Keeping Faith Soundtrack
After college Ela’s big break came when she was invited to work with composer and performer Amy Wadge who wrote and sang the songs for the hit BBC One drama series, Keeping Faith. Here she had the pleasure of singing stunning songs in her native Welsh language: an exhilarating experience and it was certainly a huge honour to be involved in such a high-profile BBC show. Ela was also invited on stage with Amy and composer Laurence Love Greed when they were awarded a Welsh BAFTA for the original score.
Other TV recordings include singing two songs written by Amy Wadge for a BBC2 drama celebrating the NHS, To Provide All People, starring Martin Freeman, George McKay and others.
More recently Ela was lucky enough to be asked to write and perform the songs for a new lock-down drama series (Cyswllt) which were written, recorded and produced ‘virtually’, and with only three weeks to write three songs.
Our Summer Inspired By Holiday Blues
Now, it is time for Ela to emerge as an artist and performer in her own right. Ela’s single Our Summer is a warm and vibrant feel-good song about young summer love and how we tend to associate a summer with that one special person.
Ela wrote Our Summer from the lows of experiencing such ‘holiday blues’ – a feeling we can all relate to. She says
“I hope the hooky chorus will take the listeners back to ‘that happy moment’ in their lives: when they were in the company of their favourite person; the sun was beating down on them and for them to experience a wave of that iconic summery feeling.”