Marie's "Always Been You" featured in National FosterMore Campaign

Marie's song "Always Been You" is featured in a national FosterMore campaign.  FosterMore is a coalition of nonprofit organizations working to raise awareness of the youth in America's foster care system.  Marie's song provides the background track for the commercial "I Am Amazing", which focuses on encouraging and empowering all foster children to reach their dreams through education.

Watch the commercial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hA5BjBbKm8

Learn more about FosterMore here: http://www.fostermore.org/

New Video: Japanese Blossoms Official Video

New video! Over the next month, Marie will be releasing a video for each of the songs on her Japanese Blossoms record. The first one is the title track for the record, Japanese Blossoms.

Story Behind The Video:

When I was searching for footage for this video, I came upon this old home movie from the 1940s (or 50s, I can't tell). There's something about the posed awkwardness of the subjects, a calculated presentation of the family- it drew me in. The little girls were obviously told how to walk and how to pose- the camera was new to all of them. I can't tell you how many times the family did the "stoic-pose-then-walk-towards-the-camera" bit in the original footage, individually with each of the family members. It was calculated, and yet vulnerable- you can see their discomfort in front of the camera, the hesitation and the unfamiliarity. It was striking to me and I couldn't get it out of my mind. I don't know who this family is, but I would love to know them. They led a beautiful life and I am honored to have them as the stars in my Japanese Blossoms video.

The song was originally written about the loss of love, but when I watched this footage and began compiling this video, I realized the video had become about the loss of childhood. The little girls play a main theme in the film, the father and the mother threaded throughout. This footage reminded me of my childhood, the little girls felt familiar- childhood is a beautiful thing and we all lose it at some point, and the lyrics to this song took on new meaning to me as I began pairing this footage with it. Funny how nothing has changed when it feels like nothing's the same, yes?

- marie