Celina Silva is the kind of songwriter who listens as much as she sings. Her debut album Inheritance Songs (out February 20) unfolds with patience and emotional clarity, sitting with memory, identity, and love rather than rushing toward resolution. The record emerged during a period shaped by grief and renewal, movement and stillness—an in-between space that Silva allows to remain open. She describes Inheritance Songs as “a eulogy, a family portrait… a spell, a shape, an image and a story,” and the album carries that layered sensibility throughout.
The album’s first offering, “Natural Blonde,” serves as a quietly powerful introduction. Intimate and clear-eyed, the single feels less like a declaration than an invitation, gently tracing questions of identity and inheritance without insisting on answers. Silva’s silvery vocal delivery is understated but deeply affecting, floating through an arrangement that leaves room for breath and reflection. In its restraint, “Natural Blonde” establishes the emotional language of the record—one rooted in observation, tenderness, and trust in what can be felt rather than explained.
Written and produced in close collaboration with Emily Millard, Inheritance Songs weaves voice and arrangement with careful attention. The songs are spacious without feeling sparse, holding room for loss while quietly reaching toward healing. Silva refers to them as “records of self/identity, family, culture, and love,” arriving like inheritances themselves—moments passed down, briefly held, and somehow retained in the body.
At the heart of Silva’s work is a deep commitment to language and community. She holds a BA in Poetry from the University of Victoria, a foundation that shapes her lyrical precision and devotion to the poetic line. Her love of harmony and choral music grew through years singing with Corazón Vocal Ensemble, and she continues to develop her practice through mentorships, workshops, and open mics, studying with artists including Emily Millard, Aspen Switzer, Jessica Benini, Joline Baylis, and Emily Millard. Alongside her life as a musician, Silva works as a clinical counsellor—a dual practice that resonates throughout Inheritance Songs in the way her writing listens closely, bears witness, and gently names what is often left unsaid.
