Life can be challenging especially when we feel we are all alone in the struggle. This special song collection celebrating women is to remind us that we are not alone. It is to remind us that we are powerful, courageous, creative and resilient. We hope you'll find songs that inspire you, relate to you, speak to you or that make you get up and dance. If there is an inspiring song that lifts your spirits please share it with us in the comments so other women can enjoy it too. We hope you'll visit often and share this post with the women that you love. (We apologize for the commercials on many of the videos but we wanted to honor the artist's work so we tried to use the song's official link whenever possible.)
VDAY is birthed from One Billion Rising, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. VDAY is an opportunity for women and those that love them to stand together, celebrate women and girls and at the same time demand an end to the violence against women and girls worldwide. VDAY has a vision of bringing the world together through song and dance in hopes of strengthening the feminine and raising awareness to her plight. Far too many females of all ages worldwide fall victim to abuse, violence and neglect. But we are many and together we can find the strength, courage and compassion to find our voice and open our arms wide enough to embrace the world. This song makes us get up and dance in communion with our sisters of every age, ethnicity and religion...sisters will you rise!?
Annie Lenox - Women Are Doing It For Themselves
Annie Lenox - Women are doing it for themselves live at the Make Poverty History Concert Series in 2005. The joy and passion in her execution of this song are infectious. One can't help but want to get up and dance with her as we sing along. Check out this link for more info about, Annie Lennox, the women's rights advocate: "Join us in fighting for women’s rights. There’s still much to do"
Colbie Caillat - "Try"
Colbie Caillat unveils the face of true beauty. The Grammy award winning artist was
not happy about being photoshopped. We applaud her for her authenticity, courage and her talent. In her song "Try", her message is simple yet powerful beyond measure...Colbie and an ensemble of beautiful women show us that we are beautiful without any extra fuss. They show us that our beauty radiates from within once we learn to love ourselves as the imperfectly-perfect beings that we are.
Alicia Keys - Superwoman
In this beautiful song Alicia Keys celebrates the work and struggle of everyday women. She reminds us that we are all Superwomen! "A Superwoman is a woman who has incredible dreams, incredible ambitions, all the things she wants to do, but she also knows how to take care of herself."
~ Alicia Keys
Whitney Houston - Greatest Love Of All
This was written by songwriters Michael Masser and Linda Creed. Linda Creed was recovering from breast cancer when they wrote the song in 1977. Originally recorded by George Benson, his version went to #24 in the US. In 1985, the song was revived by Whitney Houston,
and on May 17, 1986, it went to #1 for three weeks. While the song's lyrics are inspired, Whitney Houston's version gave the song not only new life but new meaning.
Alicia Keys - Girl on Fire
"Before making this record, in some ways I felt like a lion locked in a cage. I felt like a girl misunderstood that no one really knew, I felt like it was time to stop making excuses for any part of my life that I wanted to change. Once I made that choice I became a Girl on Fire, the lion broke free!!" ~ Alicia Keys
Dixie Chicks - Wide Open Spaces
This song celebrates every young women's right of passage. It shares the yearning for independence, adventure and the courage it takes to act upon those yearnings. Dixie Chicks invite young women to embrace the adventure of discovery and reminds those a bit more mature to rediscover it.
Shaggy - Strength Of A Woman
Strength Of A Woman is one of our favorites songs and music videos in this collection. Shaggy's lyrics are a celebration of all that is woman, strength, courage, kindness, love. The women featured in his video are awe inspiring! They represent the unparalleled spirit that is WOMAN. Extraordinary lyrics and video; a must watch!
India Arie - Strength, Courage & Wisdom
"Strength, Courage and Wisdom", shares an uplifting and inspiring view of what can happen when we face our challenges head on. India asks us to have faith and to hold on because only in doing so will we discover how amazing we truly are. We LOVE India! From the very beginning of her career she's been all about empowering women and inspiring faith.
Helen Reddy - I Am Woman
Helen Reddy began performing at the age of four in her native Australia; by the early 60s she had her own television series. Between 1971 and 1978, Reddy hit the Top 40 fourteen times with singles, including the number ones "Delta Dawn," "Angie Baby," and "I Am Woman." "I Am Woman" became an anthem for the Women's Movement in the 1970's. Her lyrics are timeless and still pertinent and poignant in 2017. This song helped inspire a generation of women and continues to inspire new generations.
India Arie - India's Song
"India's Song" is an elegantly simple melody fill with powerful affirmations about being an authentic woman. India's lyrics ask us to see the beauty in ourselves and to accept ourselves for the queens that we are. She reminds us that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and that being yourself is the most powerful way to experience it.
Jamie O'Neal - 'Somebody's Hero'
'Somebody's Hero' is the anthem for every mother who tries to do it all. "She's somebody's hero / A hero to her baby with a skinned-up knee / A little kiss is all she needs," Jamie sings of the heroine, who proves just as nurturing to the woman who taught her how to be a great mom: "She's somebody's hero / A hero to her mother in a rocking' chair / She runs a brush through her silver hair."
Tracy Chapman - Woman's Work
Woman's Work is a simple song with a simple message, a woman's work is never done. The video clip has some incredible pictures of women's work in different cultures and eras. And take a moment to check out Tracy Chapman's official website, it's beautiful: http://www.tracychapman.com
Katy Perry - Firework
This inspirational song was released in 2010. Katy Perry calls the song her "epitaph." In Entertainment Weekly in 2013 she said: "Its message has been really profound. I still love singing the song because it's not cheesy but it does its job. I feel like that song has legs."
On MTV News she said that this is her favorite song on Teenage Dream. "People are coming back and almost adopting it as their own anthem, and it's hard, I think, to write an anthem that's not cheesy," she explained. "And I hope that this could be something in that category. I hope this could be one of those things where it's like, 'Yeah, I want to put my fist up and feel proud and feel strong.'
But I also don't want to be cheesy," she added. "It's a fine line, and I think 'Firework' ... would be like the opus or my one song — if I had to pick a song to play — 'cause it has a great beat. But it also has a fantastic message."
Aretha Franklin - Respect
Multiple Grammy winner and "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin is the epitome of strength and resilience! This amazing woman became a mother at the age of 15 and had her second child two years later. After a brief hiatus she returned to performing and went on to define Soul and R&B for decades. In 1987, she became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Franklin won her 18th Grammy Award in 2008, making her one of the most honored artists in Grammy history.
Martina McBride - This One's For The Girls
"This One's For The Girls" lyrics are a salute to women of various ages (early teens, middle twenties and approaching middle age) dealing with the struggles of different phases of life - starting high school and facing new pressures, coping with uncertainty about a career, and reaching middle age - and tells them "You're beautiful the way you are."
Olivia Newton-John - 'Phenomenal Woman'
Olivia was well into her 50s when she recorded 'Phenomenal Woman,' which makes the song all the more meaningful. Singing, "It's the fire in my eyes / And the flash of my teeth / The swing of my waist /The joy in my feet," just beautiful. ' Olivia is cancer survivor and included this song on her 'Stronger Than Before' album, with proceeds benefiting cancer research. 'Phenomenal Women' poem by Dr. Maya Angelou
Pink - F**kin' Perfect
Pink sings this song for those of us that have felt like we don't fit in, have felt misunderstood or wrongly judged. Pink holds nothing back lyrically or visually from her video. She doesn't sugarcoat the pain or the self-destructive actions that come from it. Pink's song then gives us hope that through embracing our imperfections and falling in love with our "ugly" bits we will unlock our hidden talents. Thank you Pink for having the courage to be real and encouraging others to do the same.
Wild Beasts - Alpha Female
The UK band, Wild Beasts’ single, “Alpha Female” combined with the powerful images of the girls' skate scene in Bangalore, India is inspiring and powerful. The song and video transcend the limiting stereotypes historically imposed on females and invite us to celebrate the Alpha Female residing within us all. Director Sasha Rainbow was inspired to follow and shoot India’s first professional female skater Atita Verghese and collectives like Girl Skate India and the Holystoked Skate Crew. “In places like Afghanistan, Cambodia, and India, skating has not been solidified as a male sport and therefore has had a massive cultural impact, teaching values about self-empowerment through skateboarding,” she explains. “Because of the current political climate in the west and attitudes of intolerance and sexism across the world, I wanted to create a video that celebrates everyone who takes the risk to be themselves. The girls that I worked with are an inspiration,” she says. “I wanted to commemorate this incredible moment in India and show how massive cultural change can start with just one person.” excerpt from Dazzed.
Wild Beasts singer Hayden Thorpe explains, the song is “a tale of showing yourself, of pushing off the earth to gather momentum, of leaning into resistance and meeting it with bravery and composure. Don’t we all seek the exhilaration of showing ourselves to the world? And when we do show ourselves isn’t it obvious how much we are made of an exquisite clutter of strengths and fragilities undefinable by gender?” excerpt from Dazzed.
Follow Wild Beasts:
Facebook: http://po.st/WildBeastsFB
Twitter: http://po.st/WildBeastsTW
Instagram: http://po.st/WildBeastsIN
Thank you for honoring the feminine.
You can find more information about Aurora's Women's Empowerment Organization at:
Website Women's Empowerment: http://www.empowerment.ws/home.html
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EmpowermentWS?ref=hl
Website Kadan Martial Arts: http://kadanmartialarts.com
Poetry Musings Blog: http://speakyourart.blogspot.com
POI
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EmpowermentWS?ref=hl
Website Kadan Martial Arts: http://kadanmartialarts.com
Poetry Musings Blog: http://speakyourart.blogspot.com
POI
