Friday 12th March, 2021
‘If it were the last night of the world… how would you chooseto spend it?’ Now there’s a loaded question.
There’s no doubt been some Hollywood drama that utilises this epochal theme to tear-inducing effect. But here, the concept is explored, harnessing all the streamlined salience of contemporary pop. The idea is inherently liberating, a reason for reckless abandon to ensue with no subsequent complications, zero consequence in an apocalypse. A perfect fit for teenage surrender.
This notion inspired Vancouver based music artist Niki Kennedy to write The Last Night (Dancing With You). The singer, songwriter,and musician, whose multi-cultural upbringing, solo immigration, andcommentary have activelyshaped her story as an artist, was compelled to ask this question during the recent COVID lockdown. New Zealand born Niki moved fromAuckland to Toronto, Canada, at the age of sixteen to attend theRandolph College for the Performing Arts to pursue her artistic ambitions. She has since released her debut EP The Weather Up Here in 2018 and featured in Broadway World, No Depression, VENTS Magazine,Dancing About Architecture, Independent Artist Buzz, and more; onCJIM Montreal, Seattle Wave Radio, Alt Rock Radio, Bell TV, Shaw TV, andeTalk/CTV.
The Last Night (Dancing With You) is not only a sleek and slick sounding track with a fun concept —that is, if you can imagine that such a fateful hypothetical could be ‘fun’—but an accessible, genre-emulsifying concoction of pop, dance, and R&B. As Niki says about her inspiration, ‘It’s about the hope that comes from envisioning whereyou want to be instead of accepting where you’re at.’ Now that’s putting a positive spin on a potentially saturnine matter. Of course, what we have here is the concept of living in the present, mindfulness, or as Epicurean poet Horace put it, Carpe diem, ‘Seize the day’.
In this case, Niki alludes to seizing the night, which sounds like a far more pleasurable prospect.
