Gretta Ray announces new album 'Heartsong', shares title track

Gretta Ray returns to announce her new album Heartsong, out 30th October via EMI Music Australia. Gretta is today sharing the album's achingly beautiful title track, co-written with Matt Corby and released today alongside a video directed by Zoee Marsh.

Written following a life-altering health scare shortly after Gretta turned 26, Heartsong is an album about grief in its many forms: the loss of her health as she recovered from heart disease; the end of a long-term relationship that crumbled under the pressure of an unimaginably difficult period; and the temporary loss of her music career, as she confronted the possibility that the future she had spent years working towards might no longer be possible.

Pivoting away from the vivid, glitter-strewn electro pop of her critically and commercially successful sophomore album Positive Spin, Heartsong brings Gretta back to the flowing melodies, evocative songwriting and stripped-back folk intimacy of her earliest work. This time, however, she ventures somewhere deeper and darker, setting reflections on loss, grief and recovery against some of her most exquisite melodies yet.

Filled with lush piano and opening with the heart-swelling warmth of a gospel hymnal, new single and album title track 'Heartsong' sums up this paradox completely, with gorgeous melodies belying its subject matter of the precariousness of our lives and the need to stay true to one’s essence regardless of the challenges presented.

Co-produced by Matt Corby and Gab Strum, the song deftly straddles the light/dark divide, the choruses a divine swoon while unpacking complex themes of identity and purpose.

On her forthcoming album, Gretta Ray said:

"This album is a recount of how quickly my outlook on life, my priorities, my relationships and my career, changed after life as I knew it turned on a dime. Thematically, it explores loss in more ways than one - the loss of my health, as I cautiously recovered from a heart disease that stripped me entirely of my physical and mental wellbeing.

However, amidst the heaviness and heartache of it all, a part of me was shaken awake once my confidence was shot, forcing me to come to terms with what I truly valued about my life. As much as this album unpacks what it means to sit with your sadness, to honour it, to give it every aching minute, it also tells the story of a triumphant return to one’s sense of self, and how retreating to the ocean, your family and friendships, your journal, and your guitar & piano will be the things that mirror your inner essence, true purpose, and your reason to be."

Gretta Ray's new album Heartsong will be released on 30th October via EMI Music Australia.

More about Gretta Ray

Melbourne singer/songwriter Gretta Ray's journey from winning Triple J Unearthed in 2016, to being awarded the Vanda and Young Global Songwriting Prize marked an extraordinary beginning to her career. Her debut album, Begin to Look Around, released in 2021, earned nominations for both an ARIA Music Award (Breakthrough Artist – Release) and a J Award (Australian Album of the Year).

This was followed by a sold-out headlining tour in 2022, an Australian arena tour supporting Gang of Youths, and a viral moment sparked by her poignant and breathtaking cover of Billy Joel’s "Vienna" on TikTok. This cover has amassed over 20 million streams, 350 million views, 35 million likes, and half a million shares across social media platforms globally.

Continuing her success, Gretta toured her sophomore album to packed out theatres in Australia followed by a UK tour supporting Maisie Peters which ended in a final show at Wembley Arena.

Positive Spin, released in 2023 was an album bathed in golden light, a hazy sunset of love, heartbreak, growth and understanding. Praised by the likes of Wonderland, CLASH Magazine, NME, Notion and The Line of Best Fit, it was also shortlisted for The Australian Music Prize as one of the nine best Australian records of the year, the award celebrates the album as an art form.