Anoushka Shankar Announces Her New Single: ‘Sister Susannah’

To mark International Women’s Day, seven-time Grammy Award-nominated sitarist, composer and producer Anoushka Shankar has announced her new single ‘Sister Susannah’ will be digitally released on 22 March 2021.

The track features Anoushka Shankar on sitar and reciting a ‘checklist’ of requirements, with almost saintly expectations, from the perspective of an unidentified man to his romantic partner.

“The current situation prompted me to revisit and release it”

Anoushka Shankar explained, “Over the course of the last year, it’s been impossible to ignore the shadow pandemic happening alongside the pandemic itself. Hearing of the suffering of so many women, I have once again been startled by how common the experiences of abuse can be. ‘Sister Susannah’ is a song I’ve toyed with for some time and the current situation, alongside people’s visceral reactions to our rare live performances of the song, prompted me to revisit and release it.”

Alongside Anoushka, Grammy-nominated composer Alev Lenz co-wrote the music and lyrics for ‘Sister Susannah’, and best-selling poet Nikita Gill provided the spoken word poem, marking her first foray into music.

Anoushka Shankar will be performing at the Grammy Awards

Anoushka Shankar will be performing at the 63rd Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony on 14 March 2021. She will be joining artists, including Gregory Porter and Kamasi Washington, for a tribute performance celebrating the 50th anniversary of the classic Marvin Gaye track ‘Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)’.

Anoushka Shankar’s Love Letters has been nominated in the Best Global Music Album category in this year’s Grammy Awards. The poignant songs on Love Letters document a time of profound flux for Anoushka – health issues, heartbreak, domestic upheaval – and reveal a new, vulnerable and raw side of her as a songwriter and musician. “These were difficult times, which pushed me into some very vulnerable places,” explained Anoushka. “I’ve written from a personal place before, of course, but there was something particularly tender about the process this time, and it was a creative challenge to be brave enough to allow the music to remain as raw as it began.”

Tonight, Monday 8 March, Anoushka Shankar will be performing at Women, Power and Change: International Women’s Day at WOW, an event from WOW UK Festival 2021, presented by The WOW Foundation, that is being held virtually for the first time. The WOW Foundation exists to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a gender equal world is desirable, possible and urgently required.

Anoushka Shankar’s new single ‘Sister Susannah’ will be released on 22 March 2021.

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