Marianna Winter. That’s an appropriate name for the Faroe Islands I suppose, where it probably feels like winter most days, although she was actually born in Los Angeles and subsequently raised in the land of the many sheep.
That sort of directional shift always seems a little odd, leaving the bright lights for the farmstead. I’m reminded of the joke that used to do the rounds here about the 1990s British Prime Minister John Major, that he is the only person known to have run away from the circus to join a firm of accountants.
What sort of music Marianna would have made had she stayed in LA one will never know but this is well worth a listen.
‘Let me love you’, is a new ballad, featuring Ragnar Finsson who was the co-writer, and which follows her summer single ‘Patio’, which was released earlier, in June.
The song takes the form of a dialogue—half spoken out loud, half kept inside the head – and describes the messy push-and-pull of conflict in a relationship.
At heart, it’s about surrendering and not seeing the other person for what they say, but rather for who they are. ‘Let me love you’ can therefore be interpreted as the soundtrack to every fight that really just came from wanting to be held.
Hm. The fights I can recall all too vividly. As for “being held” I only remember that being when she put me in a headlock.
Marianna sets out to create music that bridges her two worlds – the rugged, windswept landscapes of the North Atlantic and the vibrant energy of California.
Because of Marianna’s LA connection I was looking straight away for any similarity with my favourite female artist, the Venice Beach-based Fiona Apple. Thus when Marianna refers to “those long nights that feel like post-war battlefields, where emotions run high and words twist and scatter like bullet casings” my mind turned to Apple’s caustic and immortal lyric (of many) “The early cars/Already are/Drawing deep breaths past my door/And last night’s phrases/Sick with lack of basis/Are still writhing on my floor.”
Of course there isn’t. Marianna’s creation is a pop song for an entirely different audience, not the wretched time-worn losers in love that tune in to Apple to get through the day.
It isn’t bubble gum pop by any stretch of the imagination but she still lives in a world in which mutual understanding, mediation, truces and peace offerings will always win the day, no matter how fiercely that war has been fought by its protagonists.
As she says, “Then comes the moment after—the dust has settled, pride fades, and you’re both finally ready to wave the white flag.”
Indeed, the gentleness of the melody, the lyrics and the video alike tell me that flag has already been waved here and that normal service has been resumed. The only casualty of the war is Ragnar (who plays a large part in the song), who has been forced to spend at least part of the night on the sofa instead of between the sheets with his belle and they’ve kissed and made up already.
There are legions of 13 years olds just waiting to learn about life and love from this song and video and not just in the Faroes and The Valley.
Currently, Marianna is working on her debut album, due out in 2026. She is writing and producing the album herself, with her long-time “partner in crime”… Ragnar Finsson. Looks like this story will run and run.
Find her on:
Website: https://mariannawinter.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_mariannawinter_
