Track listing: Love Always Wins

Deeply impassioned piano/vocals is a sub-genre that, at least in my mind, is ruled without competition by Tori Amos. Her reaching deep into the dark, difficult realms of emotion to draw lyrics from her inner psyche was a game-changing move in the music industry. Tori opened doors for Fiona Apple, Amy Winehouse, and many more to bare their souls without fear of judgment...or at least not giving a damn about what others may think.

The song at-hand bringing about these recollections is "Love Always Wins," a single released by New York based, Ukraine-born Margarita Shamrakov. She's a pianist and producer who began putting out singles online in 2020 and to date has garnered over 100,000 streams on her Spotify profile.

For "Love Always Wins" Shamrakov deferred to Theo (aka Theo Mann) for vocals. This track is a pleading, plaintive ballad blending strains of Sheeran and Beiber into the more serious overtones of the aforementioned Amos.

For the album art Shamrakov uses an image of her mother, a victim of cancer, providing the listener immediately with a visual cue setting the tone for listening to the song. And while the lyrics can be taken as positive and motivational, she says outright "I think my music is very sad."

"This song is about many things - love and deep losses never heal." So we all have these issues, right? The song you put on when you're sad...it's the same song you play when you seek motivation, solace, inspiration, or maybe just need a familiar 'friend' in the form of sound.

There's an edginess to Margarita Shamrakov's songwriting that channels her influences, including Nirvana, Jellyfish, Stevie Wonder, Bieber, Michael Jackson, Amos, Bruno Mars, and more. Check out Margarita Shamrakov's Spotify profile and YouTube Channel to keep up with her new releases and updates.