Photo Credit: Kim Selling
Today, multi-platinum, GRAMMY-nominated queer singer/songwriter, spoken word artist, poet, and activist Mary Lambert has returned with “The Tempest” – her first major single in almost a decade. The new song is available to stream HERE, and while it has heart, listeners should be ready for some teeth.
Lambert – who is most known for her powerful vocals on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ marriage equality call-to-action anthem “Same Love” – was inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest and sought to explore the parallels of power, control, and colonialism in the 21st century when penning the track. The result is a battlecry that captures feelings of a progressive movement: righteous anger, determination, and the demand for bodily autonomy for women and the LGBTQ+ community. “The Tempest” was also produced entirely by Lambert, who taught herself audio engineering and production during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I wanted to write a song that would have inspired my 18 year-old self. Although the song is about bodily autonomy, abortion rights, trans rights, and resilience, it’s also about hope and the belief that a revolution is not just possible, but imminent, and it’s up to us to rise to the occasion,” Lambert elaborated. She continued, “Ultimately, this song is about liberation. Shakespeare’s The Tempest ends with the tyrannical former duke, Prospero, learning lessons of mercy and forgiveness, but what if the people in positions of power in our world never learn those lessons? My version of The Tempest is one where we organize and demand more for our communities.”
