Song in a Day – Éirigh (Rise Up) - for International Women’s Day

An ambitious project brought together a group of women from across Belfast to write and record a song – in just one day! The song that was created, Éirigh (Rise Up) was released on 8 March, for International Women’s Day, by the OTH Music Collective, a project of the Oh Yeah Music Centre.

The project was facilitated by Katie Richardson and Dolores Vischer.

The track features the vocals of brand new Belfast based band 'Amelia is Missing.' 

The name Amelia is missing comes from an old Belfast legend about a woman named Amelia who haunts the Crown Bar after being pushed down the stairs and murdered. The legend points out that she was a prostitute- as if it justifies it in some way. This symbolism of clear mistreatment of women is something they aim to reflect through their music, blending anger, sadness and evocative lyricism with harmony, emotion and a focus on female empowerment.

“Songwriting can be challenging,” reflected composer and musician Katie, who was part of leading the song writing camp. “We wanted to see what we could collectively produce in a day, by removing the time for overthinking and being too self-critical of every note or lyric we write. It was wonderful to have a fun day together, removing the time for panic and procrastination – and to create a space for some creativity and collaboration. We wanted community involvement in the song and stressed that previous song writing experience was not essential. It was hard work – but I am so proud of what the group achieved!”

Dolores, a local music fan and music tour guide, added: “We wanted to involve as many women and non-binary people, of different ages, from across the city – and further afield, as we could.  We called out on social media for participants to sign up to either the full-day programme, or to different parts of the day as well as inviting members from OTH Collective and Tutti Music Club (run by Katie and Ciara King from Problem Patterns). We began with a songwriting workshop at the Black Box in the morning, before starting work on writing our lyrics. Others came later to join us in the evening at the Half Bap recording studio to start work there with Brona who brilliantly engineered the session. 

On the day, the women settled on two themes for their song, ‘solidarity’ and ‘accelerated action’ and discussed what these meant to each of them. The cycles of nature and women’s part in it, plus a rousing call to rise up were felt strongly by everyone in the group.  The themes connected with our local International Women’s Day theme, ‘Solidarity Beyond Borders – Women for World Peace’: and the global IWD theme of ‘Accelerate Action’. 

“It’s been such a special experience, I couldn’t wait to tell my family what I had been part of,” commented one participant, an international student from Spain currently at university in Belfast.  Another participant said: “This has been my dream for years, to sing with others, and create work in a recording studio: thank you!”

Paul Kane of the OTH Collective and Oh Yeah said “OTH Music Collective has always been proud of providing a platform for musicians to express their ideas and sounds. We are so excited to see this Song in a Day evolve into something really special. It brings together a range of artists; experienced and new and with Katie Richardson, Dolores Vischer and many others. In these challenging times it is poignant and significant that Éirigh (Rise Up) has just been born.

Charlotte Dryden of Oh Yeah added “There's nothing quite like the energy of a group of creatives in the room together. Combine that with brilliant facilitators like Katie Richardson and Dolores Vischer, throw in the spirit of activism and positivity and you have the makings of a great piece of work. Then to name it Éirigh (Rise Up) and complete it in a day and release it on International Women's Day makes absolute sense. Huge thanks to Paul Kane and the OTH for making it happen. I are really looking forward to seeing the results."

You can listen to the song on Bandcamp here https://othmusiccollective.bandcamp.com/track/irigh-2