{"id":79101,"date":"2022-12-23T09:59:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T08:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=79101"},"modified":"2022-12-23T09:59:12","modified_gmt":"2022-12-23T08:59:12","slug":"the-essential-advent-calendar-december-23-shenna-releases-holiday-ep-dear-december-slow-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2022\/12\/the-essential-advent-calendar-december-23-shenna-releases-holiday-ep-dear-december-slow-down\/","title":{"rendered":"The Essential Advent Calendar: December 23 – Shenna Releases Holiday EP, \u2018Dear December Slow Down\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Door 23 on our Essential Advent Calendar opens to reveal critically-acclaimed singer, songwriter and actress Shenna, who has released three original Christmas songs on her brand new EP, \u2018Dear December Slow Down\u2019.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Taking her inspiration from Motown and old school classics, each song on the 3-track EP is guaranteed to have you humming along right through the festive season. Recorded in Shenna\u2019s home studio in New York, listeners are encouraged to embrace the feeling of nostalgia for those Christmases of old times past. With many of us finally able to enjoy Christmas surrounded by our loved ones, Shenna says, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cthe overall theme of the EP is enjoying special moments with the people you love and the traditions that come along with the holiday season.  I drew so much inspiration for this EP by listening to Michael Jackson, Elvis, and so many others! I love the winter season and Christmas is my favourite holiday, especially living in a city as festive as NYC. I love the winter drinks, the feeling of seeing the first snow, and all the classic songs that repeat year after year. I wanted to put my love for the holidays in an original Christmas EP!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The track, \u2018<\/em><\/strong>Ms Grinch\u2019 is an homage to Shenna\u2019s favourite Christmas Character \u2018The Grinch\u2019. She says, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cif you listen closely, you\u2019ll hear a lot of references from the movie like \u201chelp me I\u2019m feeling\u201d and \u201cno one should be alone on Christmas\u201d. I wanted to make a song about the perspective of a lady Grinch character looking for love and wanted it to have an old school feel in the beat as I was listening to a lot of Elvis before writing this song!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018<\/em><\/strong>Time Of The Year\u2019, meanwhile, was inspired by her childhood memories, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c<\/em><\/strong>nothing stands out more to me than Christmas back home in Virginia playing in the snow for hours with my friends when school was closed and barely being able to feel our hands! I remember how much my extended family of aunts, cousins, and uncles would travel to come together and the exciting feeling. This song brought me right back to those times and was written as a freestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The more introspective (but fantastically fun!) EP title track \u2018Dear December\u2019 is about reflecting on the year gone by and how quickly it passes by. Shenna says, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe build up so many memories throughout the year and document them all as videos and pictures on our phones. With this song I wanted to encourage people to look back and enjoy the memories, just take it all in!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Shenna Somsmieh, known by her stage name Shenna, is a singer, songwriter, actress, and model who Shenna grew up in the suburbs of Virginia in a multicultural household. Her father from Syria would play Arabic music which inspired Shenna to dance and fall in love with music videos that tell a story, and her mother who is African-American played timeless hits from a variety of genres. Even though Shenna was a trained athlete as a child until her teen years, she always knew that being on the stage was her calling. During her high school, she started entering talent competitions across Virginia, making a name for herself locally holding the number-one spot on Bandcamp in the DMV market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Her debut album \u2018Made Of Gold\u2019 opened up many doors for her as she began landing major sync licensing placements from that project. Since then, her music has been licensed on over 25 movies, TV shows, and commercials including \u201cLove Is Blind\u201d, \u201cSelling Sunset”, “The Bad Girls Club”, Netflix Film “Miss Stevens”, and Disney’s original film,”Star Girl”. She has received notable press on Rolling Stone India, The  Washington Post, Nylon Magazine, Billboard, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shenna is currently a voting member for the Recording\u00a0 Academy & a member of Forbes The Culture community. She is an advocate for encouraging the youth to embrace who they are and speaks about mental health awareness in her music. She has also performed across Japan, London, Canada, and the United States, and opened up for Melanie Martinez at the All Things Go Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shenna\u2019s new Christmas EP \u2018Dear December Slow Down<\/em>\u2019 is out now and available to stream and download here<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracklist:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Ms. Grinch<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Time of the Year<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Dear December<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Find out more about Shenna and her music online on Instagram<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, and her official website<\/a>. Watch the music video for ‘Mrs Grinch’ below.<\/p>\n\n\n

    \"SHENNA