Soundtrack Of My Life: Heather Small

The first song I fell in love with

Dorothy Moore – ‘Misty Blue’

“I found out it was a cover, but I think her version is absolutely faultless. It was like an encyclopaedia of how to relay emotion, integrity and feeling in three minutes. It made me think to myself, ‘I want to be able to do that.’”

The first album I bought

Bob Marley and the Wailers – ‘Exodus’

“It was love songs and political songs. He’s such an artist, he was able to bring a genre of music I grew up with to the masses without having to dilute his style. The songs spoke to me as a young Black person living in the West in a time of real racism, trying to find out who you were and what you wanted to say.”

The first gig I went to

Frankie Beverly and Maze

“They had a soulfulness. It was such an electrifying feeling because he had such an amazing voice. They didn’t just replicate what they did on record, they brought something else. There was performance and that taught me a lesson. People will stay at home and listen to records but the difference is that when you’re moved to pay your money and see the band live, that live experience should transcend anything you’ve listened to. Maze was so rich and there was an air of excitement every time they came to town. There’s an integrity, a commonality, there’s community.”

The song I wish I’d written

Sade – ‘Your Love Is King’

“It’s hard to write love songs that are independent of any other love song or performance. That line, “your love is king”, encompasses so much of love in that one sentence – it’s genius. The delivery of the song is beautiful and there’s a vulnerability to it. She shows you some of her soul and that’s the most you can ask of any artist.”

The song that reminds me of home

Ken Boothe – ‘Everything I Own’

“It was very, very Caribbean. We heard it in London and it encapsulates quite a few sides of me. The music you listen to is part of that immigrant experience. Home, even though I grew up in London and I’m a Londoner and I’m British, it’s always navigating all those sides of yourself. When I hear that song, it reminds me of home in the UK within a Caribbean household, especially as a child who faced a lot of racism.”

The song I can’t get out of my head

Jazmine Sullivan – ‘Pick Up Your Feelings’

“She’s got such an amazing voice, and you can see the legacy from Mary J. Blige to Jazmine Sullivan. She can do heartbreak in a really empowering way. I’ve had heartbreak but I’m dealing with it and I’m going to move on and get to a better place. Within the tragedy there’s positivity. But her voice is just incredible – she does a little murmur and you melt.”

The song that makes me want to dance

Jojo Abot – ‘To Li’

“It makes me want to sing and dance but it’s a little bit like a call to action. It’s calling somebody out [over] domestic violence. For me it’s not about dancing, it’s about doing. There’s dancing and there’s dancing. You want to plant your feet into the ground and take action. It’s empowering, it’s about owning.”

The song I want played at my funeral

Leonard Cohen – ‘Suzanne’

“It’s an ode to a woman and it’s just haunting. She does things her own way, that’s what I get from it. It would be a good song to go out to because I do things my own way too! Society says the best kind of woman is a woman who performs, but I know the best kind of woman travels her own path.”

The song that made me want to be a musician

Gladys Knight & the Pips – ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’

“I wanted to sing before, but this song made me think, ‘You know what, I’m going to give it a good try. I will be a singer.’ She’s got this rich tone, and she weaves in and out of a vocal and even at the end she’s giving it her all because she’ll take the end and turn around and throw in a different melody that wasn’t in the track. That’s a woman who knows her craft and was in it 100 per cent.”

Heather Small begins a UK tour on March 17