The track is from the artist’s new self-titled album Jay Moussa-Mann.
Having grown up in a conservative community, Jay Moussa-Mann has spent her life having to second guess her songwriting and pretty much any of decisions that she’s had to make, for fear of being too bold, too safe, too experimental, too commercial, anything that didn’t fit into the neat little box that she’d been told to conform to since she could remember.
On her new single ‘The Greatest Escape (Ever)’, the artist shows off a more liberating and cathartic side to her work, breaking free from these shackles and finally being, unapologetically, herself. The track is full of soaring moments that encapsulate this carefree energy and sense of joy. ‘The Greatest Escape (Ever)’ is unabashedly catchy, and packed with fun, boasting lyrics about doing anything you like and not having to feel ashamed or anxious about it. Pop music works at its best when, at its core, the artist is having fun and creating music that serves them and radiates their charismatic warmth and energy into the world, this track, and Jay’s new self-titled album feel like they have been a long, long time coming.
“I was scared of being anything. Of being my true self” she says. “Scared of stretching my vocal range in case people who liked the soft folk stuff didn’t care for it, scared of writing pop songs because that might be seen as too commercial, scared of talking about my experience with racism in case my white friends and family got upset. I had spent my whole life, putting aside my emotional needs to make sure I wasn’t offending anyone, especially the evangelical church I grew up in. I was discouraged from wearing anything ‘too revealing’. I had struggled through awful bouts of anxiety and depression because of situations I was encouraged not to talk about, in order to ‘show love and forgiveness’ to others. I was quietly disappearing.”
Enter 2020. It was a massive wake up call for Jay. “Covid hit, I got really sick, at home, then I had long Covid for 9 months. I sat and watched people I thought I knew make insanely racist comments online, churches were trying to break rules to get people to meet together, calling masks ‘persecution’ while the virus was still rampant, meanwhile my Facebook feed was full of Trump supporters. I thought, screw this! I’m going to go and make the music I’ve always wanted to now. And I’m going to wear tiny, little gold shorts. Bye!”
