Thana Alexa ONA Promo
THANA ALEXA

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Vocalist and composer Thana Alexa is proud to announce the March 27th, 2020 release of her latest album, ONA. Throughout ONA, which is the word for “she” in her family’s native Croatian language, Alexa explores through eight unique original compositions and two outstanding new arrangements, the complex theme of what it means to be a woman. The tracks are at once deeply personal, in part reflecting Alexa's Croatian-American roots, yet resonate with the many cultures of women who have come into her life and influenced her music. ONA ultimately embraces the experience of women everywhere.

Musically, ONA is a departure from Alexa's first album Ode to Heroes (Harmonia Mundi/Jazz Village) and catapults her into new and uncharted territory. While ONA, too, is rooted in jazz, it showcases Alexa's sonic pallet inspired by contemporary soul, world music and pop. Alexa's use of her voice as both a lyrical and experimental instrument, her use of atmospheric sounds, electronics, soundscapes and textures, all give way to a hybrid sound that is uniquely her own and defies classification.

Alexa's stellar band consists of Grammy winning drummer and co-producer Antonio Sanchez, bassist Matt Brewer, pianist Carmen Staaf, and guitarist Jordan Peters. In celebrating the feminine throughout the album, Alexa also features an all-female line up of special guest artists of the highest caliber: Regina Carter, Becca Stevens, Claudia Acuña, Sofia Rei, Nicole Zuraitis, Sarah Charles, poet Staceyann Chin, and ROSA Vocal Group, including Aleksandra Denda, Astrid Kuljanic, Tiffany Wilson, Shilpa Ananth, Valentina Blu Lombardi and Eleni Arapoglou - who specialize in Balkan singing.

The idea for ONA evolved over the course of two years, but crystallized in early 2017 after Alexa attended the Women's March on Washington, D.C., the largest single day protest in American history. "I have never felt so motivated to express my right to resist, to protest, to be heard and to support a positive movement of change". The culmination of the stories she began to build through her compositions would go on to inspire ONA, the song and the rest of the album.

Propelled to explore the battles and burdens of women in her own life through the lens of five elements: the mind, the soul, sexuality, the struggle to redefine gender ascribed roles in relationships, and a woman’s inner strength, ONA morphs into a universal story of women everywhere. In Alexa's own words, "ONA is the musical expression of what being a woman means to me. It is the discovery of the wild woman spirit within me and the experiences I've encountered in setting her free. It celebrates the inspirational women who have given me the confidence to realize my truth and express it freely."