“Flowers” by Leah Marlene

According to Leah Marlene, she wrote that this song (“Flowers”) at a time when she was going through some serious depression. Of course she’s feeling a lot better these days, as the songstress has experienced a major professional breakthrough via notable success on American Idol. 

So as intended, this is actually a message to her younger self. The basis of said message, most simply put, is not to let depression overcome you.  And to illustrate the point that there’s always hope, she uses the example of a flower blooming out of the pavement – or perhaps as the late Tupac would have said, a rose growing from concrete. And yes, sometimes beautiful flowers do tend to grow from the cracks of even hard-paved urban streets.

Beyond that, the further implication is that young Leah may have even been suicidal back in the day, or at least she alludes to being dead in these lyrics. So in the second verse, the vocalist also advises the addressee to revel in some of the smaller, taken-for-granted pleasures in life. Within said encouragement is also the acknowledgement of “a power far inside” that is “stronger” than the negativity which defines a depressing era.

So all things considered perhaps this song is a bit simplistic. However, at the same time, it does a sound job of getting its main point across. And that is even if suffering from a harrowing depression, an individual should strive to keep proper perspective.

Who is Leah Marlene?

Leah is a singer who grew up in Illinois. Her dad, Derry Grehan, is a professional musician and member of the long-standing Canadian band Honeymoon Suite. And being 21 years old as of the writing of this post, Marlene has reportedly been preforming music in front of audiences since the age of 10.

However, it was appearing on Season 20 of the popular televised music competition American Idol which actually led to Leah gaining widespread notoriety. She impressively made it onto the top 3 and ultimately finished in third place overall. 

“Flowers”

“Flowers”, which was officially released on 13 May 2022, is the original song she performed on the final episode of said season.

Marlene is the sole writer of “Flowers”, with the track’s producer being industry vet King Henry.