Nadine Sutherland tackles domestic violence in new single
Published:Wednesday | January 24, 2024 | 12:09 AMJada Powell/Gleaner Writer
Nadine Sutherland is hoping to make a profound statement with her newest single, Can’t Stop Me From Smiling.
The Action singer, known for her soulful voice and socially conscious lyrics, told The Gleaner that Can’t Stop Me From Smiling addresses the pressing issue of domestic violence and follows the story of two lovers who are both emotionally damaged.
“The song is a conversation between two lovers where the woman is speaking to her man and saying stop weaponising her past against her. The video takes you on a memory trip on what happened before her wedding day where she was in a very abusive and sick relationship. The song highlights the complexities of domestic violence and focuses not only on the victim but also the supposed villain,” said Sutherland.
Painting the ‘love story’, Sutherland points out that the two warped individuals who, because of their wounded past, are now bleeding on each other in the form of physical and emotional abuse. She states that the woman who she depicts in the video has a distorted view on love because she has never experienced it. “All her life she has been abused so she has a twisted sense of what love is. He, too, is warped because although he loves and wants to marry her, he is beating and abusing her and it reaches to a point where both of them would have probably killed one another,” she shared.
In teasing her fans, a few snippets of the video were released a few weeks prior showing themes of revenge, broken love, but moreover the victim rising above it all to triumph and smile. Sutherland states that, “I’m passionate about domestic violence, I have witnessed it in my life and though I’ve never been a victim I’ve counselled and comforted people who are in it. I am praying that through this video people would have a deeper understanding that it’s not really two people fighting, it’s two wounded people who are fighting and we can look at it from a more compassionate level,” she told The Gleaner.
Calling it “a must-see video”, she shared that the video was difficult for her to shoot. “It was very gruelling for me to shoot that video because it was very physically and emotionally [taxing],” she said.