My name is Serena Ittoo and I am a Singer-Songwriter from Enfield, United Kingdom.
My debut single “Nature Foreseen” is a reflection and ode to anyone who has felt that they are not worthy, good enough or accepted by someone they truly love. Although they love this person unconditionally, the song faces such vulnerable emotions of what it feels like to not feel accepted or to feel judged over things you can’t control.
The song shows that the protagonist deeply loves this person and would do anything for the person to feel safe, valued and loved purely; however, the song also shows that this isn’t really reciprocated openly and purely the other way around. The other person focuses on what the protagonist can’t control, doesn’t have – this is why they push them away and the protagonist is left feeling very deflated and low-self-worth.
As a Master NLP Practitioner and Life Coach, I wanted the song to end powerfully in that the protagonist takes back their power and chooses to focus on their own worth and self-love. It is so easy to lose ourselves and forget our worth when we love someone deeply, however in situations where they don’t love you with an open heart freely, it can lead you to doubting everything good about yourself.
It reminds us that we need to take ownership of loving ourselves and not rely on other people to do this for us. So although the song is melancholy it is also empowering at the same time – the song allows you to sit, embrace and not run away from the uncomfortable thoughts/emotions you’re feeling; but also allows you to recognise that it is now time to re-claim your power, identity and worth and focus on your own self love and healing.
I wrote “Nature Foreseen” back in lockdown 2020. My friend from University who teaches me Jazz Piano shared some awesome wisdom which I definitely needed to hear at the time which was to just “keep it simple”. By this, he meant to not put too much pressure on myself about the song’s melody and lyrics.
Sometimes I do this a lot and that pressure can actually lead to nothing being written. So the interesting thing about “Nature Foreseen” is I wrote it during a free writing session I had set for myself during one afternoon in the lockdown period.
Lockdown as we know was so hard for everyone and my way of managing my time during this period was to keep myself on a personal development timetable where I learn to grow and develop my skills across multiple areas I wish to improve in.
This included vocal development and training, music research, cover challenges and songwriting. Nature Foreseen was a free writing experience and my aim was to just trust the process with it…and here we are releasing it as my debut single 3 years later.
In terms of the production for the track, I am grateful to share that I worked in collaboration with Grammy Award winning Music Producer/Engineer Aamir Yaqub (Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Sia). This was a really fun experience and we finished the track fairly quickly as I had already written the song by myself and Aamir was able to align the production of the track to my vision of the song.
I am also grateful and humbled to share that I filmed my first ever official music video for the song directed by Marcus Maschwitz (John Legend, Katy Perry, Years and Years, The 1975). This for me felt so empowering to film and is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
If I could hope my music inspires someone to do something, it would be to express your authentic self and not fear the value of your worth or let other people’s judgement stop you from embracing your unique self.
We all have so much intrinsic worth within us and its easy for us to forget this whilst we grow up and live through different experiences in our life. However, it is so important that we hold on to our inner child within ourselves and know that we are so special and that we are so deserving of so much love, joy and happiness.
I want my music to inspire people to know that they are never alone and it is okay to not feel great all of the time, it doesn’t mean your weak; happiness is a journey not a destination. I hope I can empower people to know that we have so much strength within us to overcome the challenges we face. How we react to life’s challenges is what counts. So live your life to the fullest, embrace it, enjoy it and remember happiness is a journey not a destination.
I keep saying to my family and friends, this to me is “living the dream” so I am so excited, proud and humbled to be in a position where I can authentically fulfil my purpose as well as embrace and enjoy what has always been a childhood dream of mine.
Watch the music video for “Nature Foreseen” below and stream it everywhere else here.
