Irish-Egyptian artist Shaefri has shared her brand-new single 'Warm Water', a post-pandemic ode to letting go, having fun and living in the moment.

Raised between London and Co. Mayo, Shaefri is known for her storytelling and lilting choruses that reflect the Irish music she grew up listening to. Frequently, Arabic beats meet harmonies that hark back to summers spent in Mayo and family sing-alongs.

'Warm Water' is arguably more joyful than previous releases and drives home the message that looking after your mental health and allowing yourself to let go is powerful, featuring lyrics like, "And I want you to know that it's hard but it's not all bad, I don't want you to feel this way no more."

 

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Shaefri explained her inspiration behind the track. "I was inspired to write Warm Water after the last couple of years we've had - everyone has been incredibly anxious and unsure of what's to come so I wanted to create a sort of antidote to that feeling - like slipping into warm water and exhaling.

"The whole idea is to just relax, take it easy and appreciate the good times while they're happening," the singer said.

Co-written and produced by Good Scott (formally known as "kwassa"), 'Warm Water' is the first in a series of new singles, which draw on different sub-genres of pop, both light and dark, joyful and serious. According to Shaefri, Scott "got it immediately and started working with this joyful guitar-line, slowly adding more and more 'brightness' to the song as we went, culminating in a bossa-nova inspired Middle 8 - it made us both giggle and so we had to keep it in - that’s the whole point of 'Warm Water', don't overthink it and have fun!"

This is not the first time Shaefri has explored mental health issues in her songs, which she also discussed on her critically-acclaimed second EP Girl, which followed her debut EP Cracks (2017). Girl garnered support from national and international radio, alongside Spotify and BBC Introducing and received several high profile syncs on shows across ITV, Netflix and ABC (US), and IFTA-nominated LGBTQ+ coming-of-age drama Who We Love.

Listen to 'Warm Water' below.