Fiona Ross takes stock in her sweetly introspective new single and lyric video Good Enough — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
“We all have moments of doubt and wonder if we are good enough — whether this is as a musician, an artist, a parent or just a human being,” the award-winning U.K. jazz singer-songwriter offers. “It’s what it says on the tin, really: A song about being good enough or, more precisely, not being good enough. This song is just me and how I feel.
“There’s a line in the song ‘people say the nicest things’, and this is so very true for me,” Ross notes. “People are so very kind about me and my work, but I always find it very overwhelming because I just don’t see it. I have very high and unachievable expectations of myself and what I can do, and I know I can always do better and be better. I believe this is the life of an artist in many ways.”
While Good Enough snapshots moments of insecurity, the International Singer Songwriter Association’s 2020 International Female Songwriter of the Year believes that an artist’s natural self-doubt must be balanced with some self-confidence to achieve success. “We all have worries and concerns and wonder if we are enough in so many ways and the sensible part of me says, ‘Yes, we must believe we are enough, we have to believe we are if we want to achieve anything and to achieve change.’ ”
Following in the wake of her scathing kiss-off You are Like Poison, Good Enough is the second single from Ross’s fifth album Red Flags and High Heels, released last October to wide praise. The album’s 10 studio tracks and four live recordings span the full breadth of life’s emotional spectrum and feature her stellar and highly accomplished eight-piece band.
Also a music journalist, Ross founded the groundbreaking organization Women in Jazz Media, which develops and supports initiatives for mentoring and promoting women in jazz music around the world. She is also the former head of the British Academy of New Music, where she trained chart-topping hitmakers Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora, Jess Glynne and others. With Good Enough, Ross shows that even a mentor with high-level experience and stature is never completely free of self-doubt and that the best way to reveal those very personal feelings in song is honestly and unadorned. “I always just write what comes in my head. Everything starts with me at my piano, so this is a pretty naked track from all angles.”
Check out Good Enough above, hear Red Flags and High Heels below, and find Fiona Ross at her website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
