08 September 2023
Newsdesk
Today, celebrated singer-songwriter Katie Melua unveils her latest single ‘14 Windows’. The track is taken from her acclaimed ninth studio album, Love & Money; a stunning and personal 10 track glimpse into Katie’s journey over the past two years, released in March this year.
Beneath the surface calm of ‘14 Windows’ lie the deep blue sentiments of a song inspired by the psychiatrist who helped steer Melua to safer waters after her six week hospitalisation in 2010, but twelve years later would take his own life.
“The sudden death of my doctor last year was a huge shock to me, and it is very difficult for me to speak about it. It is dark and difficult. He loved music, he had a guitar in his consulting room. I saw him on and off for 8 years and I often think about his gentle manner, all the wisdom he gave me, and the strength he helped me to build in my personal life outside of record making,” Katie explains.
Given the nature of the song’s inspiration, Katie and BMG have decided to donate all recording royalties from the single for the next 12 months to The Royal Medical Benevolent Fund charity. Speaking on her decision, Katie says: “This song is a dedication to a doctor who saved my life. He gave me back a quality of life which I'll be forever grateful for by helping me through a severe mental health crisis. I was off all my medication after two years of being under his care. And when I heard last year that he took his own life I was floored.
Naively, I didn't think that could ever happen to someone like him, but of course he and other doctors are at the front line of some of the worst battles people are facing, and being exposed to that daily, constantly, must take its toll. I have supported The Royal Medical Benevolent Fund in the past. It is a charity that gives doctors, refugee doctors, and medical students financial assistance as well as telephone befriending for those in need of help. As their website states: 'Nobody is immune to misfortune …’
My dad is a GP at an NHS practice and he almost never talks about his work. I'd like to think that if there was ever a situation where he needed support outside of his family and friends, he'd give the RMBF a call.”
Originally from Tbilisi, Georgia, Katie Melua has travelled far in every sense. Immortalised by modern standards such as ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy’ and ‘Nine Million Bicycles’, 2020’s Album No.8, was her most critically-acclaimed to date, seeing her come of age of as a lyricist, gently pushing back against the romantic idealism that forms the language of love in pop songs, and searching instead for something that felt closer to her own experience. Amassing 56 platinum certifications over a glittering 20 year career, Katie has become one of Britain’s highest-selling recording artists after bursting into the national consciousness with her chart topping debut Call Off The Search and releasing 8 consecutive top 10 UK albums.
From whichever point you last picked up the story, there’s perhaps no better time to behold the evolution of Katie Melua as a singer-songwriter than in the songs that make up Love & Money.
Produced by Leo Abrahams (Ghostpoet, Brian Eno, Regina Spektor), Love & Money was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in the summer of 2022 while Katie was pregnant with her newborn son, who she took with her on her UK and EU tours this Spring and Summer. An exquisite collection of songs sculpted by the gratitude of their creator and the positivity found in a new relationship, it also deals with self-acceptance in the face of change and her attempts to let go of “that background belief that happiness carries less weight than its opposite.”
Love & Money | Tracklisting
Golden Record
Quiet Moves
14 Windows
Lie In The Heat
Darling Star
Reefs
First Date
Pick Me Up
Those Sweet Days
Love & Money
