Singer-songwriter iyla has been particularly adept at delivering left-of-center jams tailor-made to catch our attention. This includes her most recent EP, 2023’s APPETITE FOR DISASTER, which delivered some of her best work yet. Sadly, last October also saw the singer take a hiatus while dealing with the loss of her mother. Now she’s honoring her memory with the release of her latest single “Blue Eyes.”
“Blue Eyes” strips back the usual bombastic production iyla employs on jams like “Strings” and “FOH.” This time she utilizes just her voice and piano as she pours her love and grief into the song. The results are nothing short of beautiful as we get to know her mother through the singer’s heartfelt lyrics.
“And I know that / Everything ends but she left a love / That transcends this world and the next,” she sings near the song’s end, the tears audible in her voice. “She’ll be the sea and the stars in my sky / I’ll live out the dreams that she passed down to me like her own blue eyes.”
The song’s video delves deeper into the special bond that iyla and her mother shared by mixing video of the singer today with home video of her as a child. But she shifts the focus to her mother using photographs and older filmed moments before we hear a voicemail she left for iyla playing at the track’s end.
She further elaborated on her relationship with her mother in an Instagram post, writing, “I will spend my whole life trying to be the artist that she was. Everything she touched and everything that touched her she made beautiful, even pain… an icon.”
We send iyla our condolences and thank her for allowing us to share in the memory of her mother. Take a listen to the moving “Blue Eyes” and watch its video below.
