Eva Cassidy Lives On With Reimagined 'Songbird'

Eva Cassidy’s classic Songbird has been given a stunning, spine-tingling makeover.

As achingly intimate as the original, now with widescreen grandeur courtesy of the London Symphony Orchestra, the new version offers a fresh take on a song adored around the world.

Originally released in 1998, two years after Eva’s tragic death at the age of just 33, the title track from her six-million-selling breakthrough album boasts new arrangements by the classical composer Christopher Willis (The Twilight Saga, X-Men, The Death of Stalin) and vocals beautifully restored and enhanced using newly available A.I. technology (similar processes to those used in last year’s ground-breaking The Beatles: Get Back film and recent Revolver album reissue).

The London Symphony Orchestra’s stately, immersive accompaniment elevates a song which became an instant Christmas staple when it appeared in the Richard Curtis blockbuster Love Actually in 2003 to spectacular new heights. Incredibly, Eva sounds as present and hypnotic within the sweeping orchestration as she did on her original acoustic take on the Fleetwood Mac favourite which she made entirely her own.

“The wonderful, resonant truth about this song is that Eva is the Songbird, singing naturally from the heart – no ego,” says Christopher Willis. “The goal with the orchestral version was to complement her pure vocal essence with a simple, yet broader instrumental arrangement – a lush musical landscape with Eva's voice at the centre.”

Songbird serves as the lead single from I Can Only Be Me, Eva’s landmark new collaborative album with the London Symphony Orchestra, which will be released in February on what would have been the singer’s 60th birthday.

It is the latest chapter in a remarkable, posthumous career that has turned Eva into a household name with sales of more than twelve million albums, a plethora of famous fans including Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Adele and Songbird’s writer Christine McVie and seen her songs feature in countless films and TV shows.

Already a fan of the orchestral remake of Songbird is Richard Curtis. “Eva's original Songbird is one of my favourite songs,” says the writer/director. “Now it has an equally beautiful, exquisitely different twin.”