I’ve been writing songs for over 20 years now, since I was a boy when I lost my Mum to Cancer. I lost my Dad exactly a year later to Multiple Sclerosis. Yup, life dealt my brother and I a crappy poker hand. We’ve been picking up the pieces daily, little-by-little, since. I’ve seen the world from many sides and facets and the thing that’s most interesting, is that the most special things just happen! They aren’t planned or contrived. They bear a kind of ‘timestamp’ that formalizes their creation to the surroundings at that very moment, making them unforgettable.

‘WARRIORS’ is perhaps such a creation. I don’t know why it happened. Maybe, I was being trained by a higher power in the shadows for over 20 years for it… Or is it something that was borne within me, just lurking to erupt? Whatever the reason, the song happened purely by chance, instinctively giving me a week off work, when my entire development team for my START Wellness App (launching later this year) was quarantined in Ukraine, due to COVID-19.

A simple day off led to an idea… that led to five minutes on the piano… that led to the opening of a doorway in space and time: a message so poignant, so on point, that exists within, is that ‘timestamp’ I referenced earlier.

“We are WARRIORS

We don’t back down

Forces of good

Bound by truth aloun

We stand, we rise

We fight, we fall

We get back up

As if nothing happened at all…”

There is no credit to be taken for this song. It cannot be even claimed as mine. It’s bigger than me. It’s a song for every WARRIOR that has championed us when the world was against us, held us when we were left trembling, provided us the pedestal when it was our time to shine, and nurtured us in our moments of peril. We all have them. They shimmer in and out of our lives and are miraculously there when we need them. There is no price for good people. They watch over us, only think the best for us, and when we fall, their hand reaches out to us.

The world has changed. We’ve all had one of the hardest and most self-revelatory and challenging years ever encountered. It is here where the smallest of industries by revenue, a.k.a. the music industry, has helped us find some form of comfort, some form of get-away and release in these very trying times. And it will be music that will become the vehicle and craft of celebration, when every WARRIOR pulls through this battle and comes out a changed person on the other end.

Even if the world physically goes back to being how it was, it will never be so. Too many lessons have been learnt; there has been too much realization within each and every one of us for things to remain the same. We have evolved. Priorities have changed.

You’re now only as good as your actions. Imperfection is now perfection. There is a love to be borne from one’s scars and vulnerabilities… gone are the days when people aspired to have materialistic luxuries. The last year robbed us of our EXPERIENCES and we want our EXPERIENCES back!

Happiness and Health are life’s true ‘BITCOINS’.

On Tuesday, 21 April 1998, my world became a dark place for me when my Mum’s eyes closed on mine permanently. I can never ever replace that loss, but from Wednesday, 21 April 2021, we stand, we rise, we fight, we fall, we get back up as if nothing happened at all.

Let’s get this show on the road!

– Shayan Italia

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WARRIORS is Shayan Italia’s debut International single and releases on Wednesday, 21 April, 2021. As part of the team at The Parsi Times, we’ve had an exclusive preview. It simply blew us away. Our editor Anahita Subedar, on just one listen of WARRIORS, says: “I have goosebumps and tears. This is an out-and-out masterpiece. I have no words. This is just brilliant. I love it. It’s so touching and inspiring. I don’t think I’ve heard such a track in a long long time. It’s an experience. It’s transformational.”