Lay all your love on me: Mira Ormala

Written by Mira Ormala

ABBA – a childhood inspiration

Having been born and grown up in Scandinavia, I had plenty of childhood memories of singing along to ABBA on long car journeys to the countryside or dancing around the living room to some of their disco classics. Growing up in Helsinki, Finland, I spoke both Swedish and Finnish and remember feeling inspired by this world famous super group from my neighbouring country of Sweden. You could say that ABBA’s success actually inspired me to pursue a career in music and to become a singer and that their example served as an important role model for me while growing up in Scandinavia.

Choosing the song

In my debut album ‘Dreaming’, that I released back in 2022, I was very happy to be able to go back to my roots by including a couple of songs in my native Swedish and Finnish. After having lived and worked in London for most of my adult life, when it came to choosing my first single after releasing my album I wanted to honour those roots again by choosing a song made famous and written by a Scandinavian band. ‘Lay All Your Love on Me’ is both musically and lyrically a very exciting song and being an uptempo disco classic at the same time as having a beautiful melodic line, I felt excited by the opportunity to create a classical crossover styled re-imagination of the song. I started by playing around with some ideas on the piano and made a demo recording with classical and world music influences that were the basis for the style of the final arrangement.

Production of the track

I’ve been very fortunate to collaborate with the brilliant London based Nikki and Joe Davison at Auburn Jam Music for all of my releases, and felt excited about the prospect of involving them again in this release. They agreed that ‘Lay All Your Love on Me’ was an interesting choice after my debut album, and we wanted to make the new arrangement as different from the original as possible. With this in mind we ended up going for an acoustic version with just voice and piano. Joe Davison created a beautiful piano accompaniment to the song, and we worked together to marry up the piano and vocals creating the right balance between contemporary pop and classical influences, as well as the dynamic journey of this bittersweet song. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to continue creating new music within the Classical Crossover genre, and feel ‘Lay All Your Love on Me’ reflects both my roots and my musical career as a Classical Crossover and Musical Theatre soprano.

More about Mira Ormala

Mira Ormala is a Classical Crossover soprano and actress who has performed in several award-winning shows in the West End, across the UK and internationally. Her concert work includes performing at the Royal Albert Hall with Sir Elton John, appearing as a soloist for ‘The Great British Musicals’ as well as with the Welsh Musical Theatre Orchestra and touring worldwide as a classical crossover soprano.

Natasha Barbieri, Editor

Editor

Creator of Classical Crossover Magazine. For Natasha music has always been closely tied to her faith. At age 18, Natasha made her opera debut playing the part of the mother in Menotti’s ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’ with the Eastern Festival Opera. At 20, she was a winner of the 2011 Young Artist Competition at Andrews University. Natasha graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor’s of Music. Natasha has released a series of Holiday singles “A Place Called Home” (2020), “One Little Boy,” and “The Perfect Year” (2021). In 2021, she was nominated for the ‘Future Classic Women Awards’ show on Men’s & Women’s Radio Station. Natasha is the creator and editor of ‘Classical Crossover Magazine’ a venture that has allowed her to interview many of the top stars in the genre including Sarah Brightman, Celtic Woman, Mirusia, Paul Potts, and more. During the covid-19 pandemic, she created an online concert series for the magazine that has seen her perform in the same line-up as Alex Sharpe, Lucy Kay, Barbara Padilla, Classical Reflection, and more on the virtual stage. In 2022, Natasha was included on the charity album “Stars of Classical Crossover: Christmas” in benefit of the Wallace & Gromit Children’s Charity.