Gabrielle shows off her vocal prowess in follow up single ‘Spaces’

 Gabrielle made her debut in April of this year with hit single ‘Nasty’. The song, which addressed issues around bullying, made headlines across South African media, as the 14-year-old made her voice known.

Her follow up single ‘Spaces’, is a little different. It is more of a deeply personal song, which speaks to the issue of unrequited love.

She says, “I wrote ‘Spaces’ as a way to channel the way I felt about a boy. What started as a friendship soon became more for me, but unfortunately not for him. He took my number and wrote it on his hand. We chatted for hours over the phone. I was the first to open up about how I felt, but he didn’t feel the same. I thought if I met the idea of his perfect girl, I would become his girl, but it never did.”

The heartbroken songstress put pen to paper and wrote what would form the lyrical content for her next track, producing not only a musical work of art, but learning more about herself in the process and coming to terms with inequities in life and love.

“The song helped me process,” she says. “I used the song to work through my feelings, coming to terms with the fact that sometimes you like someone who doesn’t like you back. I had to work on reminding myself that the situation doesn’t make me any less worthy of finding someone else in the future.”

Once again, Gabrielle’s song shares an important message about self-worth, about learning to love yourself first, before others.

“I feel that music is a way of telling your story, your growth and your feelings,” she says. “For me, it is very important to keep on writing and journaling my life lessons through my music, because I know that a single song can help someone else who’s going through a hard time or something similar.”

Though she addresses young love, all its pains and quirks and telling the story from a teenager’s perspective, the young singer believes that the song will be relatable to all age groups.

While her debut single was an upbeat pop song, Spaces is more of a ballad that shows off her vocal prowess. Trained by June Kraus at the June Kraus Julliard School of Music, the singer was trained in both pop and classical music equipping her with the confidence and ability to hit the high notes.

The aim was also to bring back feelings of nostalgia. This was beautifully captured in the music video (directed by SEVVEN) through the use of water and sunsets. Shot at the Vaal Dam, the video bares similarities to the Netflix series, Outer Banks.