Critically-Acclaimed Singer, Songwriter & Actress SHENNA Performs TIME OF THE YEAR For The Fan Carpet: Arena

“Soft, floaty voice gives a sense of calm” - Billboard

“Shenna is making music with a message” - Washington Post

“Flyaway vocals that are lush and somehow calming” - Popdust

“Catchy melodies, indulgent production, pop flavours galore as well as Shenna’s bright and cheerful vocals” - Rolling Stone 

CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED SINGER, SONGWRITER & ACTRESS SHENNA SHARES BRAND NEW EP OF ORIGINAL CHRISTMAS MUSIC ‘DEAR DECEMBER SLOW DOWN’ OUT NOW

Calling all Christmas lovers! This holiday season you’re in for a treat as critically-acclaimed singer, songwriter and actress Shenna releases three original Christmas songs on her brand new EP ‘Dear December Slow Down’, out everywhere NOW! 

Inspired by Motown and old school classics, every song on the 3-track EP is perfectly timely and contagiously upbeat, guaranteed to have you humming along into the night. Recorded in Shenna’s home studio in New York, she wants her listeners to embrace the feeling of nostalgia while listening to the EP. With many of us finally able to enjoy Christmas surrounded by our loved ones, Shenna says, “the overall theme of the EP is enjoying special moments with the people you love and the traditions that come along with the holiday season.  I drew so much inspiration for this EP by listening to Michael Jackson, Elvis, and so many others! I love the winter season and Christmas is my favourite holiday, especially living in a city as festive as NYC. I love the winter drinks, the feeling of seeing the first snow, and all the classic songs that repeat year after year. I wanted to put my love for the holidays in an original Christmas EP!”

Album centrepiece ‘Ms Grinch’ is a play on Shenna’s favourite Christmas Character ‘The Grinch’. She says, “if you listen closely, you’ll hear a lot of references from the movie like “help me I’m feeling” and “no one should be alone on christmas”. I wanted to make a song about the perspective of a lady Grinch character looking for love and wanted it to have an old school feel in the beat as I was listening to a lot of Elvis before writing this song!”

‘Time Of The Year’ was inspired by her childhood memories, “nothing stands out more to me than Christmas back home in Virginia playing in the snow for hours with my friends when school was closed and barely being able to feel our hands! I remember how much my extended family of aunts, cousins, and uncles would travel to come together and the exciting feeling. This song brought me right back to those times and was written as a freestyle.”

The more introspective (but fantastically fun!) EP title track ‘Dear December’ is about reflecting on the year gone by and how quickly it passes by. Shenna says, “We build up so many memories throughout the year and document them all as videos and pictures on our phones. With this song I wanted to encourage people to look back and enjoy the memories, just take it all in!”

Naming Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars, and Sia as her biggest influences, Shenna thrives on being able to experiment with her music and the concepts and emotions she’s able to portray, totally owning her own brand of gutsy, bold Pop/R&B. 

Shenna Somsmieh, known by her stage name Shenna, is a singer, songwriter, actress, and model who Shenna grew up in the suburbs of Virginia in a multicultural household. Her father from Syria would play Arabic music which inspired Shenna to dance and fall in love with music videos that tell a story, and her mother who is African-American played timeless hits from a variety of genres. Even though Shenna was a trained athlete as a child until her teen years, she always knew that being on the stage was her calling. During her high school, she started entering talent competitions across Virginia, making a name for herself locally holding the number-one spot on Bandcamp in the DMV market.

Her debut album ‘Made Of Gold’ opened up many doors for her as she began landing major sync licensing placements from that project. Since then, her music has been licensed on over 25 movies, TV shows, and commercials including “Love Is Blind”, “Selling Sunset", "The Bad Girls Club", Netflix Film "Miss Stevens", and Disney's original film,"Star Girl". She has received notable press on Rolling Stone India, The  Washington Post, Nylon Magazine, Billboard, and more. 

Shenna is currently a voting member for the Recording Academy and a member of Forbes The Culture community.

She is an advocate for encouraging the youth to embrace who they are and speaks about mental health awareness in her music. She has also performed across Japan, London,Canada, and the United States and opened up for Melanie Martinez at the All Things Go Festival. 

Hosted by Sophia Jessica, The Fan Carpet's Marc Jason Ali sat down with SHENNA over Zoom to talk about her career and as an added festive treat, she performs Time of the Year from her EP ‘Dear December Slow Down’.

Shenna’s new Christmas EP ‘Dear December Slow Down’ is out NOW.

Tracklist:

1. Ms. Grinch

2. Time of the Year

3. Dear December

Keep up-to-date with SHENNA online on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, YouTube and TikTok.