Marashiva

Te quiero (Just Married Club Mix)
Cry for me...
It has the sound of the most abysmal depths that the human soul can experience, like a hell set somewhere in between resignation and craving, yet it is definitely fun to listen to. "Cry for Me", the latest single by the exceptional twenty-year-old Berlin singer-songwriter Marashiva, may narrate a hackneyed story, but her way of telling it is more than just fresh and individual. It is about unrequited love and the inexpressible pain that comes with it. As you might expect, this ballad also features the typical sounds of strings, piano and guitar, as well as a moving voice that lets you feel its talent and enthusiasm from the lowest to the highest register. And yet "Cry for Me" never seems overdone. The drama of the story is conveyed without ever having to resort to pop-music's bag of well-worn theatricals. It is no more, but no less, than authentic tragedy put to music. As a listener, you never have the feeling of being far away from real life. At the latest when the wailing electric guitar sets in, you start to feel like you're in a seedy, sordid Tarantino film.
"She is a solitary, big-city tigress," explains Marashiva. "One of these young, strong heroines of everyday life, an example of the women of my generation. She let the love of her life go because she knew it had to be that way and now she roams the streets, more dead than alive. The only spark of warmth that keeps her going in this life that's gone stale for her is the promise she gave her partner to help and sustain him, give him strength wherever he might be, whatever he might do, even if only in her thoughts. But this state turns out to be an unbearable burden that gradually breaks her down. She starts to have doubts because she realizes that she is a victim of her love. Now she asks, 'Is it worth it? I am ready to die for him ... Would he do the same?' As soon as she allows this question to come up, she feels genuine despair and starts to cry." The story of how the song came to be is much less dramatic, however. "The first version of 'Cry for Me' was finished in ten minutes," laughs Marashiva. "Okay, the refrain was actually written on a cold, sad night. I was thirteen at the time, couldn't sleep, felt all alone ... The main melody was a true expression of the sorrow I really did feel. But the verses came two years later, when my best friend wanted to go to America for half a year. She called me up to say she would be there in ten minutes to say good-by and I didn't have a going-away present. I knew I wanted to write her this song ... But I certainly didn't plan to do it on the spur of the moment like that!" Again Marashiva laughs, "That is the truth, even though it is a bit embarrassing for me now ... Last year, when I actually got into a situation like the one in 'Cry for Me', I dug the song out and rewrote the words ... So the song is once again authentic and whole for me. What I sing today was real, acute pain."
In real life there is a happy ending for the heroine. Marashiva, a native of Cologne who is currently finishing her high-school diploma in Berlin, relates, "After a while, I found this in-between world before you let go to be downright unhealthy. Sometimes you just have to be confronted with unutterable pain before you can be good and kind to yourself ... ". The protagonist in "Cry for Me" leaves her decision open. "She goes a step further by acknowledging her tears ... But where they might lead her," now Marashiva gives us a sly grin, "is something for the listener to figure out."
Marashiva grew up with music. Her father, an event manager with a degree in classical guitar performance, helps her by introducing her to some of the big names in the world of underground music, such as Inaya Day or Pamela Felcon, and obtains high-class singing lessons for her. Yet her love of music was always the most important thing for her. "It's a matter of what music does, to me and to the people I sing for ... And nothing else. That is why I write." And that is exactly what you can hear in "Cry for Me".
Spontaneous & Unplugged "Te quiero":
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Music, singing and composing always was my Life. I can..t remember one single day in my youth, even in my childhood, that I was not singing! I guess I was about 4 or 5 years old, when I started performing, singing and dancing on the table (!) in our living-room, with the flashlight in my left hand as my microphone. I grew up in a very artistic household. My Dad was a guitar-player and event-manager. We used to travel a lot, I saw many different places, discovered a lot of different cultures and musicians from all over the world used to visit us. When I was eleven years old I started off with classical voice-lessons, ballett and street-dance. With thirteen years I wrote my first own song (in France and about France :) ) and was on stage in front of international audience in Milan for the first time. I think I was about sixteen years old, when I started to have regular Gigs in bars, hotels etc. around Cologne and Dèsseldorf. A few years I simply gained experiences, learned performing professional: how to work with other musicians, with bands or just pianists/guitar-players, on stage for a whole night. One day in January 2006 (I was on stage in a bar in Duesseldorf) I got to know Harald Peil, a producer from Duesseldorf. He came to me after my performance and asked me if I..m interested in recording the single "Rio summer night" by "Jornada del sol".... The work was great. It was fun. We all liked each other a lot and that..s the reason why I signed the record-deal with Oceanlounge-records: We..re simply believing in each other, in our success and especially in good music. The last two years I did a lot songs with and for Jornanda del sol, but now it..s time for MY music. "Te quiero", a love-song that I also wrote during my vacations in France, has been recorded 3 weeks ago. It..s in the making and I hope in April it..s gonna be published...