I'm Every Woman - And Her Voice

I have a new thing. It's called documentaries. You see, sometimes it feels like there are so many stories to devour and just not enough time. Stories that move you to tears, stories that make you angry, stories that inspire you to make something worthy of your life, and ones that unravel facts that you only superficially touched upon....My appetite for good story-telling or maybe just other people's slices of life cut out in a form, easily palatable, is what's drawing me to this specific art.

And just last week, I saw this documentary called No Land's Song. One that split me into two.

One part of me was jolted off my lazy chair in anger and incomprehension for the story of this woman - Sara Najafi, a female music composer , prohibited by law to sing solo in Iran. Why you may ask? The film leads us to a conservative cleric to find the answer to this baffling puzzle. Get this. Ever since the Islamic revolution in Iran, the Iranian guardians of propriety consider that women singing amongst men not related to them promotes an atmosphere of sensual arousal. Now this one, preposterous as it is, really is a cut above all the possible bans and repressions on women in Iran. You may know of the others. Their shimmering locks being shunned for eternity from experiencing the joy of contact with wind and their free word breathing faintly behind walls, living in a constant threat of piercing bullets. The tender female voice in Iran, even for the noble pursuit of art and culture, has to brush past several pits and stops, lobbying for permits from the Ministry of Culture, before making it in front of a selective audience. It is then tactfully muddled with male co-singing so that it wouldn't be considered as seductive and/or inflammatory... Of course, all the rules of dress code apply and there are also prohibitions on recording or publicising women-led concerts.

The other part of me was overwrought with wonder seeing the incredible journey of this woman in a quest to liberate the female voice in Iran. Solo singers in Iran have constantly been in a tug of war with religious beliefs. To witness Sara defy norms and taboos and successfully organize an official concert for female singers in collaboration with other international artists is the most uplifting experience! At the end of the movie, these women perform in public to standing ovations from an audience suffering from a cultural reprieve for years. I was moved to tears in awe of the spirit of this woman who unceasingly attempted to lift an entire nation out of a long-held taboo.

It wasn't easy to shake off the effect of this documentary on me. I couldn't wrap my head around the idea that here I am sitting pretty in my cushy bubble, taking a world of things for granted, including my personal freedom, while somewhere in another land, a lone woman is fighting caveats to unmask the power of the female voice only to be interrupted with ludicrous observations such as, "Your singers need to sing quietly" or "They need to look less like they're enjoying it. Don't sway so much."

This remarkable effort probably needs a serenade of some sort, maybe in the form of a celebration of the uninhibited female voice in all its tenderness and warmth and mystery and well bite me, seductiveness.

So this is me getting off my couch and sharing with you a small mix tape of all my current favourite female vocal masterpieces on my Ipod. Well, yea most of them are pretty mainstream but they're masterpieces to me, mostly for how I'm constantly getting lost in them.

Haunting and moving. Check.

1. Bjork: Joga

All Bjork songs are multi-layered....there's no listening to them just once. The way she sets her poetry on fire with her soft and tender voice is genius. This song was the reason I fell in love with her crafty singing so it makes to the top of my playlist.

2. Slow Like Honey: Fiona Apple

It's like her voice could pierce right into my soul. That slow, disquieting way in which the song moves, the clean, wounded quality of her singing and the powerful piano chords fading into nothingness in the end, leaving you wanting more...I am lost in her anguish. Every time.

3. Frou Frou: Let Go

I have had this song on my playlist ever since Garden State, probably cos the lyrics defined me for the longest time. "Excuse me, too busy, you're writing your tragedy, these mishaps, you bubble-wrap, when you've no idea what you're like." Umm, maybe not that relevant any more but I think it's here to stay. It's got that quality of a blinding melody that can only be created through the gorgeous voice of Imogen Heap.

4. Sarah McLachlan: Possession

Possession is that song that you can faintly recollect the moment it plays, if you listened to pop music from the 90s. This song's got that celestial quality and yet it's so dark and eerie. I can't quite pin why I'm drawn to this song; maybe it reminds me of an uncomfortably familiar place that I've been in before. But then again her voice cannot be resisted.

5. Etta James: At Last

Oh this song! It's like a power ballad that I can only imagine features in every silly, soppy girl's life. Yea, I know. Who has the time for buckets of tears inducing ballads any more? But just the other day, instead of jumping ahead, I decided to give it my patient ear. The emotions are just so overwhelmingly powerful.

6. Adele: Someone Like you

Adele's singing, spell-binding as it is, drives you with a force to sing along in an attempt to hit those notes completely out of your reach, and even though you're completely off-key and wobbly-pitched, you come out of the shower feeling pretty elated. This song's one of them. Just can't get it out of my shower.

7. Madeleine Peyroux: Dance Me to the End of Love

I don't really care much for Madeleine Peyroux but I love the careless, drunken swing of this Leonard Cohen cover in her Ella Fitzgerald like voice. Perfect dinner music.

8. Sona Mohapatra: Dum Dum

I'm in love with Sona's fluidly soulful voice! It's the voice full of money as Fitzgerald would say. And this song is one that'll bring joy to a gloomy Sunday evening.

9. Joni Mitchell: Woodstock

Now where do I even get started with Joni Mitchell? The signature beauty and pain in her voice and the powerful lyrics -"We are stardust, we are golden, and we've got to get back to the garden..."There's no getting over Joni!

10. Roxette: Joy Ride

"Hello! You fool, I love you!"I mean Joyride's all smack-in-the face, carefree youthful spirit ready to take on love. And Roxette makes it seem so freakin' simple. Of course, that confident, husky voice helps.

11. Sara Bareilles: Brave

Guess there couldn't be a song more defining and upbeat, while we're at breaking silence. Wrapped up in a fun, easy-breezy tune, you've got yourself a song that you'd be singing at the top of your voice with all your girls.

I'm tempted to add a few empowering songs but this list isn't really about empowerment. It's about freedom. It's about the flood of emotions that a female voice, when bared, can release. I have many more songs in mind. But for now, I'm sticking to my current playlist.

Hope you enjoy this list as much as I do!