Canadian native, Alessia Cara, began her career in music by uploading her take on contemporary hits. She landed a contract with Def Jam and in 2015 at 18 years old and released her debut ‘Here’.

For this, she won a Grammy for best new artist. Rather than going straight to college she opted to spend a year focusing on music which paid off after she was signed to her label. The following November, her album ‘Know It All’ gained two more platinum singles with ‘Wild Things’ and ‘Scars To Your Beautiful’. The latter also became her second Top Ten Hot 100. Cara regularly writes music about heartache, 21st-century struggles and everyday life which incorporates her feelings towards different topics. 

This song is perfect to fit alongside a Netflix film like The Willoughbys, it tells a love story, but the lyrics have so much clarity in their narrative that when you listen to them, you can picture how it would fit into a movie perfectly to emphasise emotion or reinforce the key element in the film. Alessia Cara has a raw voice, there is a part nearing the end when it is just her vocal and it sounds so pure with little extra filters added on to distort our enjoyment and it works so well to showcase her talent. The song itself is subtly powerful in getting it’s message across. The repetition of the title, ‘I choose you’ makes it very personal and it is written in such a way that makes you think it might even be you that is chosen! The instrumentation sitting behind the music is soft, cosmic and beautiful to move the melody from phrase to phrase. The texture gradually builds through the first verse, but wonderfully drops out nearly completely for the chorus, which is unusual in popular music. It is the vocals that rise up in pitch and confirm that you are definitely in the chorus and this shift is very effective. 

‘I Choose’ is a bit different in creation, with clever production that doesn't tick every norm, but tells a story wonderfully, with a rich vocal that delivers a flowing melody that will work so well with the film’s story.

 R&B 

Author: Phil Arnold

Phil Arnold is a musician, producer and music reviewer from Devon, in the South West of England. Whilst not writing music reviews, Phil also writes and records under the name of Ugbrooke.