Fellow Voice alum Jacquie Lee is remembering Christina Grimmie in the absolute best way— through their mutual love of music.
In Lee’s emotional new video for “Somebody’s Angel” the 19-year-old pays tribute to the heartbreaking losses of 2016, including Grimmie who was fatally shot in June while signing autographs after her show in Orlando, Florida.
The visual shows Lee painting an image of a television set that is tuned into various new coverage of this year’s losses including David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen and the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. The video ends with a candid, blissful moment of Grimmie and Lee singing karaoke on the very first night of their Voice tour back in 2014.
“Obviously Christina inspired the song, but it woke me up to all of the tragedies that go on every day,” Lee shared with People Magazine. “I feel like those words really helped me get through Christina’s passing, so I wanted to make it open to everyone and tribute every person that we’ve lost this year.”
The song came about after Lee was approached by a homeless woman in Starbucks, who began to talk to the singer-songwriter about death.
“Usually, I would just be in my own world, but I heard her out and she was talking about how her mother had just passed away,” said Lee. “Then she asked if I had ever gone through something like that. I started opening up to her about Christina because it was so short after. She started giving me advice and said, ‘Don’t worry, she’s somebody’s angel now.’ The words resonated in a certain way to where I was like, ‘I have to go home and I have to write a song about this.’”
“Out of everything that everyone else had said to me about the situation and what happened, it just didn’t hit me as hard as what she said,” Lee added.
The track’s bluesy tones and electric guitar timbre were influenced by Elvis Presley’s “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You,” a cover that Grimmie made her own and was a personal favorite of Lee’s.
Watch the video for “Somebody’s Angel” below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1FWFYplgU8
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