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A suite of songwriting nominations

A number of prestigious international songwriting competitions have nominated various tracks from Shameem’s latest EP, Time Does Not Reverse. This is in addition to Shameem’s recent grand prize win of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest with the track Pass It On.

1) The Independent Music Awards has nominated Time Does Not Reverse as a finalist in its Urban EP category. The final winners for this competition are yet to be announced.

2) The UK Songwriting Contest has nominated I Love You, But and Just A Show in the finals of the RnB / Urban and Adult Contemporary categories respectively. This means that these tracks were in the top 1-2% of entries from all around the world in their categories. Additionally, Pass It On and Moderation were named in the semi-finals, which means that all four tracks of the Time Does Not Reverse EP were nominated in this competition!

3) The USA Songwriting Competition has nominated Moderation as the finals of its R&B category.

This means that, while the Time Does Not Reverse EP has remained unsung in any songwriting competition in Shameem’s home of Australia, all four of its tracks as well as the EP itself have either won or been recognised as finalists in one of four different international competitions.

Pass It On – live at The Ellington

Pass It On, live at the Time Does Not Reverse EP launch show at The Ellington Jazz Club.

Grand Prize winner: John Lennon Songwriting Contest

Shameem’s track Pass It On has been awarded the grand prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Gospel/ Inspirational category! Pass It On, featured on Shameem’s recent EP Time Does Not Reverse, was originally written as a crowdfunding reward. Learn more about the inspiration behind this feel-good toe-tapper here.

 

Sounds So Beautiful – Shameem – Live And Learn, Knowing That Time Does Not Reverse

Another write-up from French blog Sounds So Beautiful, this time reviewing the entire the Time Does Not Reverse EP.  Click on the image below to read the full article.

 

SoulandJazzandFunk – NO REVERSE!

An honest review of my EP from boutique UK blog SoulandJazzandFunk – these guys are soul purists!

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SHAMEEM (TAHERI-LEE) is an Australian soul singer/songwriter based in Perth. She impressed the soul world with her 2014 long player, ‘The Second City’. Connoisseurs grew particularly fond of her Alicia Keys-flavoured ‘Beautiful Soul’.

Shameem is now set to follow that up with a four track EP, ‘Time Does Not Reverse’ that wins release at the end of July. The lead single, ‘I Love You But’ has just become available and if you can get past the odd electro intro you’ll discover a fine contemporary soul tune with great lyrics about loving, but not liking someone!

The EP’s other tracks are the lazy, jazzy ‘Just A Show’, a quirky ‘Moderation’ and ‘Pass It On’ – a lovely, simple, sweet. old school pop-soul ballad with a killer hook in the chorus.

Shameem launches her EP with a show in Perth on July 29th. People in the rest of the world can learn more @ www.shameemmusic.com

Pass It On – inspiration

The lyrics for “Pass It On” are here.

My uncle King Toh was the initial catalyst behind this song. He very generously donated to a crowdfunding campaign for my last album, and his reward was for me to write a song on his topic of choice. Several other people were also recipients of this same reward; most of them got me to write a love song for their partner/ spouse, or a jingle for their business. But Uncle Toh asked me to write a song about the concept of “pay it forward”: doing something good without any thought of reward. This really sparked my imagination, as service to the community is a big part of my life, and I’m a firm believer in the concept that you can only become a better and nicer person if you reach out and give of yourself generously to others. I’m also a firm believer that the world is not too far gone: the smallest actions that we make do make a difference, and the betterment of the world can be achieved through the sincere and good deeds of everyday people. What’s more, I believe that it doesn’t matter how talented (or not talented), how smart (or not smart), how strong (or weak) or rich (or poor) you are: everybody on this earth has something that they can offer that will be of benefit to someone else. The most important thing I think is the motivation for our actions, which is what “pay it forward” is all about: we don’t do a good thing because it will in any way come back and benefit us. We just do it because it’s a good thing to do.

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Pass It On – lyrics

You have a smile, you have a minute, you have a dollar
That someone else may need
Could you
Just take a while, reach out and give it, no thought for honour?
‘cause you might plant a seed
And one day we may see
The seed become a tree

Chorus:
Can you pass it on? Can you spread your light?
Can you ignite another fire from your flame?
Can you pass it on; let it out of sight?
Can you ignite another fire from your flame?
Can you set the world ablaze?

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