Music
Singers and musicians inspired by Frida Kahlo
Blossoms - "Ribbons Around The Bomb (2022)
The album title was inspired by the visit of the frontman of the British Band, Tom Ogden, to Frida Kahlo’s house in Mexico in 2019.
“While on tour in 2019 in Mexico, I visited Frida Kahlo’s house. Looking at her paintings on show, someone had described one of them as being like a ‘ribbon around a bomb’.
“I immediately thought that it was a great title for a song and album because of the imagery that it evoked in my mind. I thought about how lots of things in life could be described as being a ribbon around a bomb in the sense that as people we often dress things up which have a darkness lying beneath them.
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/KZjCoMrciss
Lion Babe - "Frida Kahlo" (2021)
On April 2021 Lion Babe released the upbeat new song "Frida Kahlo" in remembrance of the inspiring artist whose spirit so really nourished her suffering and creativity. Despite the fact that the new song was brimming with vivacious summer vibes, it was really a tribute to Frida Kahlo. It honors her bold authenticity, as stated. The new song is accompanied with a wonderfully vibrant music video in which the lead vocalist Jillian Hervey of Lion Babe assumes the role of Frida Kahlo.
The video, which was directed by Charlotte Scalpari and Lion Babe, is a calypso color explosion that tells viewers to "go look where you came from, it's all there for you." Hervey had a bedazzled unibrow and his hair was a brilliant mix of flowers.
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/R7O7vXriCtY
Florence and The Machine - "What the Water Gave Me" (2011)
"What the Water Gave Me" is a song by the English indie rock band Florence and the Machine from their second studio album, Ceremonials (2011).
Florence Welch told about the title and meaning of the song: "It's a song for the water, because in music and art what I'm really interested in are the things that are overwhelming. The ocean seems to me to be nature's great overwhelmer. When I was writing this song I was thinking a lot about all those people who've lost their lives in vain attempts to save their loved ones from drowning. It's about water in all forms and all bodies. It's about a lot of things; Virginia Woolf creeps into it, and of course Frida Kahlo, whose painfully beautiful painting gave me the title". During an interview with NME, Welch revealed how she looked in Frida Kahlo painting by saying, "At lot of the time when I'm writing, things will just appear. I was writing the song and this book on symbolism was lying around, and it had the painting in it. It's nice to mix the ordinary with extraordinary".
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/am6rArVPip8