FOREST, ONTARIO’S EMM GRYNER IS BACK IN THE #SPOTLIGHT WITH A NEW SINGLE AND A NEW UPCOMING ALBUM! THE #SPOTLIGHT CAN BE HEARD DAILY AT 9:30AM DURING XS MORNINGS WITH JAY & ROBYN!
“Burn the boats / Raise the siege / The sun and the sea / Set me free / Burn the boats / Raise the siege / The sun and the sea / Make me believe.”
Award-winning singer and songwriter Emm Gryner has a new single to share, imbued with the rhythms of the early 70s.
“Burn the Boats” took inspiration from Gryner’s desire to communicate the story of the birth of a new race of people and the woman who was the mother of this story.
Written with Michael Holmes, this laid back yet mysterious yacht rock song is a contemporary retelling of the life of La Malinche, Dona Marina, a Nahua woman enslaved to Hernan Cortes in 1519. Marina was one of 20 enslaved women given to the Spaniards in 1519.
She would become both guide and interpreter to Cortes in Mexico, and ultimately gave birth to his son, Martin, who is considered one of the first Mestizos (people of mixed European and indigenous American ancestry).
Emm’s new single is a proud and defiant throwback to both music and world history.
A graduate of North Lambton Secondary School in Forest and Fanshawe’s Music Industry Arts program, Gryner is a three-time Juno nominee with 20 albums to her name.
Emm Gryner is an award-winning singer, songwriter, actor and best-selling author. Emm sang and played keyboards in David Bowie’s band, and appears on numerous recordings, including his landmark 1999 SNL appearance, Bowie at The Beeb and Toy. Bowie’s acclaimed Glastonbury 2000 documents her performance in front of more than 100,000 fans at Worthy Farm. With her own band, she shared arena stages with Def Leppard, and she also helped bring the first music video recorded in outer space to the world.
Detroit radio formed the soundtrack of Emm’s life and career and her forthcoming record is a celebration of that music. From Motown, jazz and pop, to Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac and The Doobie Brothers, Business & Pleasure is infused with the sunshine soul and stellar playing of the late 70s and early 80s. These songs, written with poet Michael Holmes, and recorded with drummer Shannon Forrest (Toto), keyboardist Pat Coil (Michael McDonald), singer Catherine Russell (Steely Dan), and guitarists Tom Bukovac (Taylor Swift) and Pat Buchanan (Hall & Oates, Dolly Parton), embody a take on yacht rock that sails deep into the 2020s and introduce the world to a bold new character: a powerful woman whose passion, presence, conviction, humor and grace serves to unite the world in music, joy and love, once again.
