Sometimes something can feel wrong until you are with that specific person that makes it feel like magic. That can be said for indie/pop artist Kenna, who just could not get her love songs right before she met her current girlfriend, Alexis, three years ago, but now she is releasing her new love song, “wings roots;” and you can watch the music video exclusively on Celeb Secrets today.
“I am someone who is normally vehemently against love songs, but I knew that this was the girl I wanted to write a love song about,” she said. “I always say, ‘I feel like before her, I felt like I was always getting the love songs all wrong,’ but it turns out it was just the wrong person.”
“wings roots” has helped Kenna discover who she is as an artist and what she wants her music to continue sounding like. She co-wrote it with longtime collaborator Jared Anderson, whom she met and dated in college.
“I came out after we broke up and we didn’t talk for like a year,” she said in a recent TikTok. “We wrote this song together probably about a year after we had started talking again…and we wrote it about my girlfriend who I’ve been with for three years and his now-wife who he just got married to this year.”
Of course, a music video is accompanying the release of the song, but this one meant something special to Kenna. It features Alexis and her together in Nashville intertwined with home videos of them over the past few years.
“It’s a music video I always wanted to see when I was growing up,” Kenna explained. “Queer representation is so important to me, and I’m so happy I get to share my story in this art form with the world.”
Being able to break the heteronormative standards of the entertainment industry is important. While huge steps have been taken over the past couple years, there is still major pushback. Recent examples include the outcry of disbelief and disgust when Lil Nas X kissed a male backup dancer during his BET Awards performance, and Pixar’s heavily coded LGBTQ+ film Luca.
Kenna continued, “I think it’s getting better, but it’s important to me to share my story and be a part of the change in making the art world and world in general more inclusive.”
It turns out the hardest part of filming the music video was for Kenna to allow herself to act natural on camera. Mixing her personal and professional life in front of a camera was a daunting task but ended up being more than worth it.
“[Alexis] was more of a natural than I was and she is a med student,” Kenna joked. “In the end, we had so much fun and it was a really great way for me to get outside of my head and showcase the love I wrote about in the song.”
We can look forward to more music coming from Kenna in the future, but it may not always be her voice singing her songs as she plans to continue working with other musicians.
“I’m going to keep releasing music under my own artist project and continue to create and write for other artists,” she explained. “I might play some shows, but my main focus right now is writing, recording, collaborating and creating— my favorite things.”
You can watch the music video below and catch up with her on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
What was the music video that made you feel seen growing up? Drop a comment below or tweet us at @celebsecrets.
