Irish musician Gemma Hayes shares 'Raise Her Up' to mark International Women's Day

Award-winning Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes has teamed up with Hermione Hennessy Ross, producer Tim Ross, Jamie Lawson and more to create a new track raising awareness of the power of girls’ education.

The original song 'Raise Her Up' was co-written with Ivor Novello award-winning singer-songwriter Jamie Lawson, and is being released today for International Women’s Day. As well as Hayes's vocals, the track also features the voices of Hermione, SIBÈAL, Jamie Lawson and Ellie Doyle. The gorgeous lyric video was created by Animind studio with line drawings from Karolina Papp.

The words of 'Raise Her Up' explore the power of choice given to those girls who receive an education, as well as the right to feel safe in one's home and the privilege of receiving an education. Allowing girls to make their mark on the world with free will and their own path to forge is explored in the poignant song.

"Lyrically, Jamie, Tim and I wanted to send a clear message that there is no good reason in this day and age for 130 million girls to be without an education," Gemma Hayes told Hot Press. "We wanted the song to also say that hope is there and this epidemic can change. The first step is making people aware."

"The Irish government in the past have been leaders in this area, we hope tomorrow to encourage them to step up their pledge ahead of the Global Summit in July. Basically the GPE are dealing with local leaders and governments in third world countries to help change the views and culture around girls empowerment. They are also working to build schools and create a curriculum that will help girls in their particular society," Gemma adds. "They need funding from every first world country to make this happen and to continue the amazing work they have done so far."

Hermione Hennessy Ross hopes that the track will make the case for foreign investment into girls’ education globally. Gemma and Hermione will meet with Minister Colm Brophy tomorrow in the hopes of convincing the Irish Government to continue their leadership and step up their pledge ahead of the UK-Kenya hosted Global Education Summit in July. If world leaders fail to act now, the impacts will last for decades to come. By financing education today, millions of lives will potentially be saved.

New music from both Hermione and Gemma scheduled to arrive in Ireland later this year.

Hayes has released a string of EPs and successful albums in the course of her lengthy career, including 2002's debut Night on My Side, The Roads Don't Love You (2005), The Hollow of Morning (2008), Let It Break (2011), Night & Day (2014) and 2014's Bones + Longing. She was voted 'Best Female Artist' at the 2002 Hot Press Awards, received a Mercury Prize nomination in 2003 and won the 'Best Irish Female Artist' gong at the 2006 Meteor Ireland Music Awards. Hayes is also a member of The Cake Sale and Printer Clips.

In 2016, English singer-songwriter Jamie Lawson's track 'Wasn't Expecting That' beat out Ed Sheeran's 'Bloodstream' for the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. Since signing to Sheeran's Gingerbread Man Records, 'Wasn't Expecting That' has sold over a million copies around the world. Lawson's early success was curated from Ireland, where he lived for some time. In between gigs, the English singer-songwriter also worked in Dublin's Tower Records. He released his Talking Pictures EP in 2020.

Watch the new video for 'Raise Her Up' below: