Acclaimed singer-songwriter, cellist and composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson shares new single ‘You Can Have Everythingʼ.‘ Wednesday 6th May

Available here

Acclaimed singer-songwriter, cellist, composer and MOBO-nominee Ayanna Witter-Johnson is excited to share her first solo music in three years. Out on her Hill and Gully Records imprint on Wednesday 6th May, ‘You Can Have Everythingʼ kickstarts a new era of her sound, sitting somewhere between the unique intimacy and alternative tendencies of British soul acts like Anaïs and Laura Mvula, but with nods to the instrument-rooted jazz & vocal crossover pioneered by Esperanza Spalding and Meshell Ndegeocello.

Ayannaʼs compositional approach is centred around her relationship with the cello, and the instrument functions as both rhythmic anchor and emotional compass on ‘You Can Have Everythingʼ - a bass-like, percussive force that grounds the song in the body as much as the spirit. The song began when Ayanna lived in Paris in 2020, just before the pandemic hit, taking shape whilst grappling with the growing sense of restriction, loss of freedom, and uncertainty. It became an act of rebellion - a fantasy of hope and expansiveness, asserting that even when physical movement is limited, the imagination and spirit remain boundless.

Ayanna shares: “The beauty of music and all art is the chance to inhabitant your imagination and create a dreamworld of limitless abundance. An antidote to the often relentless nature of day to day life and all the challenges it brings. This song is one of those moments where for a few minutes you can imagine having whatever it is that you want!ˮ

A second-generation Jamaican born in Britain, Ayannaʼs work celebrates her heritage, culture and identity through music that is both deeply rooted and boundlessly inventive. Credited as a one-woman orchestra — a singer, songwriter, pianist, cellist and composer whose sound lives between worlds - she seamlessly blends classical, jazz, reggae, soul and R&B, tapping, struming and bowing her cello with a singing voice thatʼs rich, grounded and transcendent.

In a star-studded career so far, her music has been championed by icons from Gilles Peterson to Jools Holland, and she has collaborated and toured with musical legends including Andrea Bocelli, Peter Gabriel, Nitin Sawhney and Anoushka Shankar. Her televised performances include Later… with Jools Holland, the BBC Proms and Sing It Loud: Black and Proud. A graduate of Trinity Laban Conservatoire and the Manhattan School of Music, she has composed for the London Symphony Orchestra, and made history as the only non-American to win Amateur Night Live at Harlemʼs legendary Apollo Theater — the prize money from which funded her first EP. ‘You Can Have Everythingʼ will release on Wednesday 6th May via Hill and Gully Records.

Ayanna Witter Johnson website here

Thanks to Bridge The Gap for sharing with us