Song For Jesy

"Song For Jesy" is a song by American recording artist Bella-May, produced by Ryan Tedder. It was released as the fourth single from her third album Ready or Not on May 26th 2014.

Background
Bella wrote Song For Jesy after a dream she had one night. In this dream, she was in a romantic relationship with a woman named Jesy. According to the singer, Jesy died towards the end of the dream leaving Bella very distraught as she woke up - she claims she begun crying. This experience inspired her to write a song about Jesy and how she felt genuinely saddened and heartbroken about Jesy's "death", despite the fact that Jesy never even existed. She brought the song to Ryan Tedder who produced the track. Bella performed an early version of the track on her 2012 Sex Before Marriage Tour and it would eventually appear as the eleventh track on her third studio album Ready or Not.

Composition
Song For Jesy is considered a pop ballad with dubstep influences. The song begins with Bella singing over a piano. A beat kicks in as the song progresses and the final segment of the song features heavy production, including a dubstep breakdown. The track has received comparisons to "Glassheart" by Leona Lewis" and "Lies" by Marina & The Diamonds. According to Bella, an early demo of the track saw it as a piano-ballad only. Both Bella and her label felt that this version did not represent her usual music style at all and decided it needed to be given a "pop make-over".

The radio mix of the song sees the intro and outro both shortened. The vocal's are made more clearer and there are various production tweaks throughout in order to make the track more radio-friendly.

Music Video
The music video for Song For Jesy was written and directed by Bella-May herself. Set in the 1950's, the video begins by insinuating that Bella's lover, Jesy (played by Bianca Lawson), has died. Throughout the majority of the video, Bella reflects on their time together. There are some scenes of sexual nature however, for a change, they are done in a tasteful manner. When the song ends, we are shown a scene taking place in a hospital where Jesy is grieving for a recently deceased Bella. A priest walks up to her and begins talking to her. He informs her that Bella is now in hell as a result of their relationship. He claims that hell is not a place full of demons and fire, but rather a place where we are destined to experience our worst nightmare for the rest of eternity. He asks Jesy what she thinks Bella's worst nightmare was, but she replies that she doesn't know. From this, we can gather that throughout the entire video, Bella was dead and the footage we saw was actually Bella in hell, suffering from her worst nightmare - the death of Jesy. The video ends with Jesy leaving a single red rose on Bella's grave.

The video received mixed to positive receptions upon it's premiere. Many critics praised Bella's writing and directing as well as the plot twist at the end of the video. Others, however, felt that it did not come across as sincere due to Bella's history as a "slutty" pop singer. Many fans were pleased with the video as it showed versatility in Bella.

Track listing

 * Promotional CD
 * 1) "Song For Jesy" (Radio Mix)


 * CD Single (Limited to 4,000 copies)
 * 1) "Song For Jesy" (Radio Mix)
 * 2) "War Paint"
 * 3) "Song For Jesy" (Wideboys Extended Mix)
 * 4) "Song For Jesy" (Manhattan Clique Radio Edit)


 * Digital Single
 * 1) "Song For Jesy" (Radio Mix)
 * 2) "Song For Jesy" (Instrumental)
 * 3) "Song For Jesy" (Wideboys Extended Mix)


 * Remix EP
 * 1) "Song For Jesy" (Radio Mix)
 * 2) "Song For Jesy" (Manhattan Clique Club Mix)
 * 3) "Song For Jesy" (Manhattan Clique Radio Edit)
 * 4) "Song For Jesy" (Wideboys Extended Mix)
 * 5) "Song For Jesy" (Wideboys Radio Mix)