Two years before her debut album Nothing’s Real was released, Shura's debut single, "Touch," began generating acclaim across the Internet. Working with guitarist and vocalist of the indie rock band Athlete, Joel Pott, Shura began co-producing her album. Shura played the keyboards and synthesizers on the record and co-directed the music video for "Touch," which features her twin brother, Nicholas. The single was re-released along with a remix of the track in 2016 before the release of Nothing's Real. Today, "Touch" is Shura's most streamed song on Spotify.
I ONLY NEED YOU TO BE FRENCH WITH ME. Born to an English father and a Russian mother, Aleksandra Lilah Yakunina-Denton and her brother Nicholas were raised in Manchester, UK. Aleksandra, better known by her stage name, Shura, started playing guitar at the age of 13. By 26, she was gaining popularity in the UK. The video for "Touch," which features lots of kissing between people of different genders and sexualities, prompted a Manchester journalist to ask the singer to define her sexuality. The singer told Vice, although the headline read "Shura comes out before Manchester" [concert], she says, "I didn’t come out! [The journalist] just asked me if I was gay and I said yes." While Shura identifies as a lesbian, she told Mancunian Mattersthat there is a "massive spectrum for everyone" and that "there are many kinds of love." She goes on to say that the video "didn't feel like a political statement at the time" because she was simply filming the sexuality as she experienced from being part of the LGBTQ+ community. On a small budget with only some actors and a video camera, Shura's music video tells the complication of love and break ups as a human experience. And that human experience helped to spread the video around the Internet, especially among the LGBTQ+ community.
THERE'S A LOVE BETWEEN US STILL. While Nothing's Real holds a high Meta-critic score of 79 percent, Joe Levy's Rolling Stone review knocks the album for the ambiguity of gender in the songs, calling it "a map to a treasure that's never there." It seems that homophobia was a big factor in this album not fully becoming the "Madonna for millennials" that Vicepraised her as, as far as her success in America. Shura's UK popularity didn't spread to the US other than the Dance chart. Her UK fame, though, sparked the attention of Mumford & Sons, who covered Shura's track "2Shy." "Touch" appears in the second season of Sex Education in a make-out scene between Otis and Ola. Just as the song's music video shows how fluid sexuality is, the Netflix original series explores the complex sexualities of British teenagers. Sex, attraction, and relationships can be as complicated as this song's subject--trying to be friends with an ex. Shura's music reflects that complication, mostly avoiding pronouns--with the exception of "Indecision," talking about a boy. All we need is for her to come out with a catchy third album. She's due at any time to follow up her 2019 forevher.
When I was a Christian teenager, a book started circulating in my church youth group. Joshua Harris wrote about youth with wisdom and authority that seemed logical and categorical for every situation to the young women who read I Kissed Dating Goodbye . The book’s thesis argued that dating was a worldly alternative to the more purposeful Christian concept of courtship. Dating fueled erotic passions, which must be saved for a heterosexual marriage. Dating is casual, even preteens dates. Courtship was about vetting a marriage partner and would happen in the late teen years or early adulthood. YOU THINK I'M PRETTY WITHOUT ANY MAKEUP ON . Josh Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye was part of a movement I’ve written about a lot: purity culture. How much this movement influenced young Katy Hudson, a pastor’s daughter in Southern California, touring with a slew of Christian rockers on the heels of her debut, self-titled album , I can only speculate what went through the 17-year-old star’s
On April 8th, people from around the world crowded the path of a rare total solar eclipse that spanned from central Mexico to Newfoundland. The celestial event lasted at most 4 minutes and 28 seconds. In the eclipse's direct path, businesses charged excessive rates for tourists to stay, dine, and enjoy themselves before and after the short main event. Many recall the 2017 total eclipse when then-President Trump looked directly at the sun without protective glasses, leaving experts aghast. As the 2017 and 2024 total solar eclipses were less than seven years apart, why the hype and international travel? While the two solar eclipses happened only seven years apart, the last total eclipse before 2017 in the contiguous fifty states was on March 7, 1970, and the next total solar eclipse after 2024 is not until 2044, but only be visible in the north-midwestern states around sunset. I SEE THE NIGHT SLIPPING OVER. The cosmic phenomenon of the sun being blocked by the sun’s light being block
Capitalizing on the pop-punk sound of the time Tooth & Nail signed Search the City , and they released their first album A Fire So Big the Heavens Can See It in 2008. The band played at Tooth & Nail Day at Cornerstone that year and produced several radio singles from the radio-friendly album. Tongue-in-cheek lyrics in songs like " Son of a Gun " and " Ambulance Chaser " lyrically could connect this Detroit-based band with the likes of a clean-lyriced Blink-182 , Angels or Airwaves , or Relient K . Five years after Fire , the band reformed with a new drummer, bassist, and vocalist, 21-year-old Travis Bobier , who was much younger than the other band members. The 2012 album Flight was very similar to Fire, with Bobier's vocal performance on the album of high-register, energetic emo sound like original singer Josh Frost . YOU HAVE A PLACE TO CALL YOUR OWN THAT NO ONE CAN EVERY TAKE FROM YOU. The opening track of Flight , " My Secrets Have Secr
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