Winona Oak – With Or Without You
Swedish singer-songwriter Winona Oak has returned with a heartwarming new single ‘With Or Without You’. The emotionally charged and vulnerable track showcases a shift in her musical journey and serves as the much-anticipated debut under her new label home, Nettwerk.
Over the last year, Winona Oak has delved into her songwriting, seeking a more unvarnished and stripped-back sound that meant her poetic voice had nowhere to hide. The outcome is some of her most raw and authentic work yet, with a profound depth to her writing introduced by her new single ‘With Or Without You’.
With brave vulnerability, ‘With Or Without You’ shares the heart-breaking grief of losing her mother earlier this year. Her honest and emotive lyrics are backed by a stripped-back melody that builds with intensity, signaling the sentiments of both love and despair. The track was written at the end of 2022 when Winona was adjusting to the fact she would lose her mother after many years of illness from terminal cancer, and it addresses her unfathomable loss, but also her love for her mother and her gratitude at being her daughter. As part of the release, she will be donating some of the proceeds from the track to the Swedish Cancer Institute.
She says; “’With or without you’ is one of the most personal songs I’ve ever written. I was 14 years old when my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer and the doctors gave her a maximum of 5 years to live. I always knew that she was one of a kind, more stubborn and hopeful than anyone I’ve ever known. Of course, she proved everyone wrong and lived 3 times longer than all the doctors predicted. She would smile at me and tell me not to worry “I got this, there’s always a sun behind the clouds””.
“As I’m sitting here in the darkness, in the middle of my grief after finally losing her earlier this year, it’s impossible to imagine a life without her. And in the midst of it all, I’m still so grateful to be her daughter, still so grateful for all the love that she gave me. I lost someone that’s irreplaceable for me and with this song I’ll let you into the most broken corners of my heart. Some will say I turned my pain into art.”
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