WITH the global rage of COVID-19 and racial unrest in the United States, Empress Miriam Simone says there is need for uplifting music now more than ever.
Hence, Higher Heights - her latest song which not only calls for a return to world sanity, but glories the Rastafarian faith she has practised for over 10 years.
"Higher Heights is a prayer for the world. I ask to open up the eyes of all human kind; people are still blinded by propaganda and by world government oppression," she told the Jamaica Observer. "It's calling out everybody to unite and make a better world."
The song is produced by Jah Works and released by ZenSocial Records and Empress Miriam Simone's Dredda Records.
Based in the Netherlands, the Suriname-born artiste saw the social and economic grief COVID-19 caused throughout Europe. It has accounted for over 1,000,000 deaths on the continent and crippled job markets.
Racial animosity in the US in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in May 2020 also influenced Empress Miriam Simone to pen Higher Heights. So too Rastafari, which has always been part of her life.
"The first Rasta women that made a big impact on me are my mother and her sisters. I also learned a lot from Empress Messenger I-Nalee, Sisa Benji, Nyah Ites, Marcia Elliot and Sister Isis Miller," she said. "They all got a good heart and contribute on community service work on their own way. They are respectful, wise and pure sisters, full of love and light."
Higher Heights is the follow-up to We Don't Wanna Cry, another heartfelt track, which Empress Miriam Simone did with Capleton. It was produced by Bobby Digital.