MALIA’s One Grass Skirt To London is a deeply personal album that reflects her life journey from Malawi to London, told through powerful interpretations of song favorites from films that captured key moments in her life.
MALIA’s remarkable new album, One Grass Skirt To London, is a deeply personal reflection on her life’s journey, spanning continents and decades. From her childhood in Malawi to her teenage years in London, the 14 tracks featured on this album encapsulate the pivotal moments that shaped the artist she is today. With music as her guide, MALIA reveals the tender memories that have defined her, drawing from classic film soundtracks that have resonated with her at various stages of life.
The album’s title itself speaks to a physical and emotional voyage: an 8,200-kilometer distance between the singer’s birthplace in Malawi and her life in London. But beyond the geographical leap, the album serves a reminder of her evolution as an artist and as a person, with each song representing a marker on her path - songs that evoke powerful memories and hold an enduring place in her heart.
For MALIA these tracks aren’t merely covers; they are intimate connections to her past. From “Everybody’s Talkin’” (Midnight Cowboy) to “Take My Breath Away” (Top Gun), “Pure Imagination” (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and “Here On My Own” (Fame), the songs speak to a life spent absorbing the emotional currents of cinema and music alike. Each one resonates on a profound level, recalling formative moments in the semi-darkness of cinemas in Blantyre and South London, or the familiarity of a family TV. In these songs, we hear the singer transition through various phases of her life - from the innocence of childhood to the trials of adolescence, to the maturity of womanhood.
The album also carries a tribute to her father with a touching rendition of “When I’m Cleaning Windows,” originally by George Formby. This sentimental nod to the 1936 film Keep Your Seat Please captures the importance of family and memory in her artistry, adding a deeply personal layer to the album’s journey.
“Behind each of these songs is either a memory, a personal experience, or the feeling of being able to convey a part of myself,” MALIA reflects. “I’m aware that this album embraces different genres. But if it’s meant to convey a certain image of myself, it’s that of a music lover in the broadest sense of the word. When music touches me, moves me, it doesn’t matter to me whether it belongs to one genre or another.”
Collaborating once again with her trusted trio - pianist Alexandre Saada, bassist Jean-Daniel Botta, and drummer Laurent Sériès - MALIA has crafted one of the most intimate albums of her career. Their contributions helped her shape a sound that's both deeply personal and universally emotional, reinforcing the timeless quality of the songs she’s chosen to honor.
One Grass Skirt To London is a tribute to the power of music to connect us to our past, our identity, and the people we’ve loved and lost. Through each track, MALIA proves that music, in all its forms, is an essential part of who we are - and in her case, it’s the heartbeat of her very soul.