Comeback Alert: Donna Lewis – The Messenger

b.liebman

Nov 1

UK pop songwriter Donna Lewis' 1996 smash "I Love You, Always Forever" was inescapable at the time of release, and you would have to be living as a hermit out in the northern highlands to for some reason have not heard it at least once since then.

While that song would gain Lewis a platinum album, few of her other songs ever achieved near as much success. Lewis has never stopped making music, though her last full album of new material landing in 2015, along with an expanded edition of her hit album coming out in 2021. What kept her from being as productive the last few years was a breast cancer diagnosis. In Lewis' words:

"When I received my breast cancer diagnosis in 2021, it made me think about how I was living my life. I've always been pretty fit and healthy, so the news came as a total shock. Was my body out of balance? Was my life reduced to a mere checklist? It was a tough moment that made me question whether I could rise above it. I saw cancer as an uninvited and unwelcome messenger—a dark dweller that I vowed to banish from my body with the support of my loving family, brilliant doctors, and my art. "Why have you come to me, how do I get you to leave?"

Like so many other great songwriters, Lewis transformed this time of struggle into art in the form of her latest single "The Messenger". Joined by Holmes Ives, who helped Lewis craft the track into an ethereal trip-hop number, the song outlines the different chapters of Lewis' experiences since her diagnosis. A long way from the twee pop of "I Love You, Always Forever", "The Messenger" is powerful in its dark subtly and avoidance of any saccharine melodies. It cuts like a scalpel instead of a broad sword, and is better off for it.

Listen to this offer of hope in the darkness here.

https://open.spotify.com/track/03i6TxgHzgtqMwtsPdnqQD?si=1d794ac4526e41ec