At the age of sixteen, Esthero moved from small town Harriston, Ontario on her own to Toronto, where she began singing at open-mic nights, a journey that in 1997 led to a meeting with the president of EMI Publishing Canada, whom she charmed so well during their first meeting that without hearing her sing a single note he was moved to set up and finance recording sessions with Doc, a guitarist and studio engineer. Their debut album, Breath from Another, was released to critical acclaim in 1998 and is widely seen as one of the more accessible albums of the trip-hop genre.
Though she remained active following the moderate success of the debut album, featuring on tracks by such artists as Nelly Furtado and The Black Eyed Peas, it would take over 7 years for a proper follow-up to be released (due to a confluence of factors that included a lengthy creative process, the closure of the WORK record label and marketing delays) in the form of 2005's Wikked Lil Grrrls, an album that crossed genre boundaries with its heavy debt to jazz and hip-hop. The album was preceded in 2004 by a pair of EPs, The O.G. Bitch Remixes (with the title song reaching Number 1 on the Billboard Dance Chart) and We R In Need of a Musical Revolution, which served as a preview of the full length album.
After the release of Wikked Lil Grrrls, Esthero devoted an increasing amount of time to songwriting and production, with her work featuring on albums by Brandy and Kanye West (most prominently on West's single Love Lockdown).
2012 saw the release of Esthero's third full-length album, Everything is Expensive (Universal Music Canada), preceded by the release of Never Gonna Let You Go as the lead single and video. The album was partially funded through a campaign on PledgeMusic in which backers could choose from exclusives such as artwork by the singer. Everything is Expensive debuted on Billboard's Heatseeker chart at #13.
Official Websites
www.esthero.net
Half A World Away
Esthero Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Tu me abrases
why tu me llamas
Pero me siento solamente
Muy solas
Across the sand
The warm air blows
She was half a world away
Bites her lip and pulls her clothes
Caressed her thigh and soon
Night would turn to day
She was half a world away
Half a world away
He tells her not to close her eyes
Lifts his hands up to her face
And wipes her hand away
He's the master of the lies
He makes the rules up for this game
He'll tell her what to say
And send her half a world away (half a world away)
My child, half a world away (half a world away)
Don't close your eyes (half a world away)
We're all on the run, from something we fear inside (half the world away)
We don't really know ourselves at all
The lyrics to Esthero's song Half A World Away convey a sense of loneliness and isolation despite being in the presence of someone else. The singer is being touched, embraced and called, but still feels alone. Then, the song paints a vivid picture of a woman in a faraway place, possibly on a beach, and her lover is imagining her, wanting her to stay awake and not close her eyes. It becomes clear that the lover is manipulative and controlling, telling her what to say, and sending her half a world away. The final lines suggest that we are all on the run from something we fear inside and that we do not fully know ourselves.
This song touches on themes of distance and disconnection in relationships. The woman in the song is physically far from her lover, but he still seems to have a degree of control over her through manipulation. This dynamic could be interpreted in various ways, such as the power dynamic between two people in a romantic relationship, or perhaps the way external factors such as societal pressures can affect a relationship. The final lines of the song suggest that there is a universal feeling of not really knowing ourselves and the relationships we have with others.
Line by Line Meaning
Tu me tocas
You touch me
Tu me abrases
You embrace me
why tu me llamas
And why do you call me
Pero me siento solamente
But I only feel
Muy solas
Very alone
Across the sand
On the other side of the world
The warm air blows
The weather is nice there
From her eyes you know
She is very far away
She was half a world away
She's so far away and it hurts
Bites her lip and pulls her clothes
She's nervous and scared
Caressed her thigh and soon
He touched her inappropriately
Night would turn to day
So much time passed
He tells her not to close her eyes
He doesn't want her to resist
Lifts his hands up to her face
He wants to control her
And wipes her hand away
So she's helpless
He's the master of the lies
He's in control of everything
He makes the rules up for this game
It's all in his hands
He'll tell her what to say
And she'll have to listen
And send her half a world away
And she'll be so far away from everything familiar
My child, half a world away
Dear child, so far away
Don't close your eyes
You have to stay alert
We're all on the run, from something we fear inside
We're all hiding from our fears
We don't really know ourselves at all
We're all a mystery to ourselves
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Esthero, Martin Daniel Mc Kinney
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind