Yesterday, International Women’s Day, would have been the ideal time to announce a new single from local woman Kelley McArdle because it deals with issues of insecurity and peer pressure that are felt by women the world over.
Called “Little Me” this latest offering from Kelley takes the form of a message to her younger self in the vein of “if only I knew than what I know now”.
As such it deals with all the angst and pressure of growing up, the seemingly impossible conundrum of needing to conform but also having the courage to stand out from the crowd as an individual in your own right.
The past two years have been productive ones for Kelley, she has taken the opportunity to write and release numerous songs such as “Shine A Light”, “Beat That Face” and “Golden Angel”.
“Little Me” stands out however as her strongest offering to date from what is an impressive and wide ranging repertoire from the Drogheda singer songwriter who is still only 26 year old.
“I wrote ‘Little Me’ about a year ago” Kelley told Drogheda Life. “I got an idea that I wanted to write a song to my younger self.
“I was in the frame of mind that little 8 or 9 year old me deserved better, and that I shouldn’t be speaking bad about myself so often.
“I wanted to apologise to my younger self for continuously saying ‘you’re not good enough’ and fix it moving forward. I wanted to have little me sing back to me in the end with encouraging words to reassure myself that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was, and that one day little me will understand why I felt what I felt, and why I did what I did.”
Seven year old Lucie McKenna does a fantastic job as ‘Little Me’ on the recording. Kelley says her sweet innocent vocals portrayed the part exactly how she had envisioned it.
Kelley, a former ‘Voice of Ireland’ contestant with a Diploma in songwriting from IMM, a wide variety of influences from such varied acts such as Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Queen, Eminem, Ed Sheehan.
The single and the accompanying video are also produced locally by Fran and Eric in Abbeylane Studios and Tullyallen man Martin Connolly made the excellent video for which Dawn Finnegan did the makeup.
Kelley has been involved in a great deal of charity work in the Drogheda area over the last 6 years, working with such charities as Gary Kelly Cancer Support, SOSAD, Alzheimers society, Drogheda Homeless Aid, Lets Talk Mental Health, and most recently the Rape Crisis Centre North East and Dublin, raising over €10,000 for them with the release of her single “Shine a Light”.
You can find more about Kelley on her social:
