Acoustic Pop Soul vocalist and songwriter Cecily has teamed up with well-known D.C. hip hop artist Tabi Bonney for her second single “Heaven In Your Eyes.” The song is a ‘feel-good’ track with strong 80’s and 90’s R&B influences. Cecily is excited to give her fans a new song with a throwback feel that is still fresh. She is also very excited to collaborate with DC rap legend Tabi Bonney. “Heaven In Your Eyes” will be digitally released on Sept. 17th. It will be available on iTunes, AmazonMp3, CDBaby, Spotify, Last.fm, iheartRadio, Rdio and more. 

Heaven In Your Eyes feat. tabi Bonney

Written by Cecily Bumbray and Jacob Ungerleider
Produced by Drew Kid

I Am Love

A Flower In Winter

Never Enough

Purchase this song at https://cecilymusic.bandcamp.com/album/pisces

A journey of finding inner-strength and self-love, told through a sweet soprano voice over lush 70's-inspired arrangements.

"It's late summer. I feel smooth stones on the soles of my feet and a cool mist on my skin. I slide my toes into the fresh water of Wli Falls and swim towards the raging cascade.

Six months later I wrote this song, "Pisces." 

That was in 2011. Years later and every word still feels raw & true...

I've swam in waterfalls that stung my back
All I ever wanted was to go back 
Cause even things that hurt make you feel alive
And all I ever wanted was to live before I die."

- Cecily, @CecilyAlexa

Pisces

Songs of Love & Freedom is a piece of myself I shaped over many months and long hours, and tried to fashion honestly, making it beautiful — true beauty which can only come from Truth. The truth found in solitude; the truth that lifts you from comfort and into something much more powerful – rebirth.

With each song I tried to capture a moment. I tried to give you the moment I sat in the grass in London feeling the sun on my face appreciating not having to please anyone but myself. I tried to give you the moment I was in Ghana’s lush green Volta region and felt the power of Wli Falls spraying my back — how alive that felt! I tried to give you the moment I sat in my room in silence looking at Spring outside my window and knew that the Universe was holding my hand and leading the way, if only I let my ego go. I tried to give you the moment I learned of the murder of Jordan Edwards, just 15 years old and killed by a police officer. The moment I found Hope in hopelessness.

With unconditional LOVE of self — appreciation of the growth, the struggle, the beauty — I offer you a piece of myself created out of my own power – the Power that comes from vulnerability.

Songs of Love and Freedom

Don't Hide The Sun

Grow

Your Idea Of Beautiful

Awakening Pt. 1 is the story of my awakening to Love - of learning to work on myself so I don’t unintentionally hurt my loved ones, of learning to forgive myself so I can love myself without condition, of surrendering to the beautiful flow of love in my life. These are stories of learning how to choose trust, patience, compassion, honesty, and kindness. These are stories of choosing love over fear, and I hope these songs serve as a reminder to you to do the same. Choose love over fear.

Acceptance

No Room For Fear

Set Myself Free

Clumsy

DC’s own Cecily, two-time Washington Area Music (Wammie) Award Winner, has joined musical forces with fellow Washingtonian and Grammy-nominated singer and producer Muhsinah to present “Spirit Tell Me” the first single from Awakening Pt. 2, Cecily’s eagerly anticipated continuation of the critically acclaimed Awakening. Pt 1, for which the visual EP received Grammy consideration for 2020. 

“Muhsinah and I had our first-ever songwriting session just a few weeks before the lockdown began. We wrote “Spirit Tell Me” in about 90 minutes, and we both felt it was a powerful song,” says Cecily. “Due to the pandemic, I had decided to delay releasing any new music until 2021, but I woke up one morning in June in the midst of the global public health crisis, economic uncertainty, and an unprecedented movement for racial justice, I knew this was a song that needed to be shared before the end of the year. I knew that this song of hope was desperately needed especially now.”

“Spirit Tell Me” is an inspirational song, depicting how many of us call on the Divine when we feel stagnant or lost. Trusting Spirit to guide us, we move through our uncertainty, feelings of overwhelm, and self-doubt. By trusting the Divine, we recognize our own divinity and learn to trust ourselves.

Cecily adds, “Sometimes life leads you out into unfamiliar and uncomfortable places, and that's when you lean on trust. I think that's a lesson that 2020 has taught me and many others as well."  

All of Cecily’s music and each of her songs tell a story; and when woven together on an album or EP, she delivers the rare and lost art of a concept album. Awakening Pt. 2  interweaves Cecily's life experiences with inspiration from the book All About Love by Black feminist writer bell hooks. Embracing the creativity and power of Black women working together, Cecily reached out to collaborate with Muhsinah, who has written and collaborated with Common, Flying Lotus, Robert Glasper, The Foreign Exchange, and many more. Their fruitful collaboration was “Spirit Tell Me,” which Muhsinah co-wrote and produced.

Spirit Tell Me

“I Am Love” is the new single from Washington DC-based vocalist and songwriter Cecily (ses-suh-lee). Known for her agile soprano and honest lyrics, the single is the first track taken from her upcoming project “Awakening Pt. 2” which was inspired by the text All About Love by bell hooks. The track specifically focusses on the importance of affirmations, as discussed in the text, with the heart – and title – from the track rooted in the power of reminding yourself: “I Am Love”.

Echoing the romantic sensibilities of 1970s soul artists with a fresh twist, “I Am Love” effortlessly exists at the intersection of Jazz and Soul, highlighted by an easy groove and thoughtful harmonies. Co-written alongside Jacob Ungerleider, the melody of the track grew from a chord progression inspired by Cecily’s listening to Blossom Dearie and Dionne Warwick, which felt like a natural pairing to the affirming poem she had crafted through daily journals. The track pays tribute to its poetic beginnings with emphasis on imagery around love as depicted through the natural world and colors; “green for the heart chakra and rose, as in a rose quartz, which is the crystal used to cultivate love energy.”

“Awakening Pt. 2” explores unconditional love and its transformative power. Going beyond the romantic, Cecily dives into what hooks called a Love Ethic and examines how love can grow in each part of our loves
and in society through familial love, self-love, divine love, and love of Mother Nature. “bell hooks said, “All awakening to love is spiritual awakening” and that’s how I felt when I wrote these songs and more broadly in my journey to awakening to love.” In crafting a thematic album Cecily pays extra attention to the individual identities and styles of each track. Working with the likes of Jenna Camille, Muhsinah, Allyn Johnson, Zachary Cutler and Jacob Ungerleider, the LP travels through the realms of Jazz, Soul and R&B with tenderness and musician precision.

Growing up surrounded by her parents’ vast record collection – her father, a lover of Miles Davis, and her mother, a Smokey Robinson fan – Cecily developed a love of singing and an appreciation for the connection
she had to music from a young age, taking classical voice lessons from the age of thirteen. Through this upbringing and her own focus on poetry, her work is fueled with a unique sensuality that informs not only her vocal approach, but also her self-reflecting lyrics, grappling with self-acceptance, vulnerability, and rebirth. With a degree in Political Science and Black Studies, and an understanding of how disillusioned politics can make people feel, Cecily works to bring purpose and power to her music and people’s lives. Over her career, she has done just that by making a commitment to create work that celebrates vulnerability as a strength, unconditional love as a grounding principle, and joy as an innate human right.

Cecily

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks