‘Stand up straighter’
Edmonton pop vocalist returns to school where she was bullied for video.
Don’t mess with ESMA.
As a teen, some of her school mates bullied her because they thought she was too confident.
“I was always happy with myself and I loved fashion and makeup,” says the Edmonton urban-pop vocalist, who uses her first name only as her performance name. “I dressed up and I got backlash for that. People were thinking that I was a snob and full of myself. You can get bullied for anything.”
ESMA, now 24, is hoping to pass on some words of wisdom with her new single, Fall Back, and raise some money for an anti-bullying campaign in the process. The song, available on iTunes, features a sultry Middle Eastern melody, arcadegame synths, barked-out chants in the style of Duran Duran’s Wild Boys and lyrics such as “Stand up straighter” and “I got my army/Nothing can harm me.”
The song “is about having self-confidence and knowing your self-worth,” she says. “And when people try to bring you down, just tell them to fall back.”
ESMA is donating at least half the sales of Fall Back to the Amanda Todd Legacy Fund, which offers anti-bullying programs and support for teens with mental health issues. Todd, 15, committed suicide at her B.C. home after years of online and verbal harassment. “Her story just touched me,” says ESMA.
She recorded the song before Todd’s death, but the accompanying video, to be released on Saturday, deals with the issue of bullying in school. One student sends a nasty text to another before ESMA intervenes, offers some words of encouragement and struts her stuff through the streets and locker-lined hallways of Edmonton.
Some of the scenes in the colourful clip, which also stars dancers, BMXers and a yellow Ferrari, were shot at her old school, J. Percy Page in Mill Woods. ESMA admits she was grateful to return to the site where she was bullied. “It was really, really empowering to go back,” she says.
Strength is a must for any aspiring musician, even more so for a pop vocalist trying to succeed in a city known for punk, rock and country, but ESMA is making progress.
Based on her first single, Force of Nature, she earned $10,000 in Hot 107’s talent contest last year. (She was one of six recipients.) She’ll open for British singer Jay Sean on Sunday, Feb. 16 at SET Nightclub in West Edmonton Mall. Tickets are available from setnightclub.ca.
ESMA’s next single, Soul Trigga, produced by Get Recked, a duo from Edmonton, will likely be released in May, when she heads to Canadian Music Week, a schmoozefest for artists and executives in Toronto.
“I make music because I want to express things that I care about,” she says. “As an artist, it’s important for me to have important messages because, unfortunately, female pop artists are not about that. (They sing) about partying and blah blah and that’s fun sometimes, but it’s too much. I really think a lot of stars aren’t taking the initiative to do something.”