Manitoulin Island teenager releases her first original song
Looking for a way to make the best out of a bad situation, 13-year-old Ellie Maxwell found inspiration for her first original song during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was a song that was inspired by COVID and all the lockdowns and how we should really look for better days,” said Ellie, who's from Manitoulin Island.
The full song and music video for Better Days will be released Friday. Ellie said after a particularly challenging several months, she is hoping it helps give people some hope.
“I hope that they’re inspired and they look to the future and they just feel happy," she said. "I feel like -- especially people that I know -- are kind of sad because they look to the future and they’re like ‘there’s global warming, there’s COVID, there’s a pandemic,’ all that stuff and I just want people to know that we can put in the effort and we can make this better.”
Her dad, Steve Maxwell, said she has been impressing people since she could walk.
“I was doing the dishes after supper one time and Ellie was in the kitchen and she was singing one of the main songs from the Disney movie 'Almost There,'" Maxwell said.
"And I could not believe what I was hearing. I mean it was loud and rich and powerful and I thought man there’s something here. We really have to support her and encourage this because this is not just an ordinary voice."
Steve said that Ellie was only seven or eight during her kitchen concert and she started singing lessons shortly after. She's particularly good at singing jazz songs, he said.
"The interesting thing is before we named Ellie, we had to decide what her name was going to be and we thought well we really like Ella Fitzgerald so let's call her Ella," he said. "We call her Ellie for short. But as it turns out, she’s got a voice from that era and her voice goes with her name.”
Looking for a way to make the best out of a bad situation, 13-year-old Ellie Maxwell found inspiration for her first original song during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo from Facebook)
Currently, she takes weekly lessons with an expert vocal coach in Georgia, and she has worked with Britton Cameron in Nashville who helped co-write Better Days.
“In a sense, it is a family effort, but it’s also a community effort,” said Steve. “Now my wife Mary, she’s really the… we call her the mom-ager, because she does a whole lot of background work. Social media stuff, arranging for the recordings, telling us it’s time to record a song or shoot a video. The actual video production of the music video you’re going to see -- in fact all of Ellie’s video productions -- are done by Ellie’s brother Robert. He has a video business."
And for Ellie, playing for an audience is a big part of what she does as well.
“So if I’m singing in front of an audience, I can really feel, like, are they connected with me?" she said. "Or do I need to connect more with them? And when you’re singing and you’re making eye contact with them, it’s just -- it’s just such an experience because it’s almost as if you’re all one experiencing me performing so it’s really a great experience for me.”
Ellie has dozens of videos uploaded to her YouTube channel with the trailer for Better Days receiving more than 15,000 views ahead of its release date on Friday.
“I’m quite anxious,” she said. “I'm just constantly thinking, like, are my friends going to find out? Because my friends have not found out about me doing this original song. So now I’m like are they going to look on the TV and see my original song? So I’m kind of nervous about that.”
But with her first original song ready to go, she said she is looking to the future.
"I’m just taking baby steps because when I look at what could be in the future, I get overwhelmed," Ellie said. "So for me, I just like to practise every day, learn songs, practise with my singing teacher."
"It’s not really possible for us to see exactly where Ellie will go with this," said her dad. "We’ve tried, but there’s just too many moving parts and variables. So at the moment we’re just, like Ellie says, we’re taking small steps.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cisco reveals security breach, warns of state-sponsored spy campaign
State-sponsored actors targeted security devices used by governments around the world, according to technology firm Cisco Systems, which said the network devices are coveted intrusion points by spies.
Student anti-war protesters dig in as faculties condemn university leadership over calling police
Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war at at universities across U.S., some of whom have clashed with police in riot gear, dug in Saturday and vowed to keep their demonstrations going, while several school faculties condemned university presidents who have called in law enforcement to remove protesters.
opinion RFK Jr.'s presidential candidacy and its potential threat to Biden and Trump
Although it's still unclear how much damage Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s candidacy can do to either Joe Biden or Donald Trump this election, Washington political columnist Eric Ham says what is clear is both sides recognize the potential threat.
'The world is too messy for bureaucratic hurdles': Canada still bars Afghanistan aid
Ottawa has plans to finally stop blocking Canadian development aid to Afghanistan this year.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
I just don't get Taylor Swift
It's one thing to say you like Taylor Swift and her music, but don't blame CNN's AJ Willingham's when she says she just 'oesn't get' the global phenomenom.
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Hamas is reviewing an Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, as possible Rafah offensive looms
Hamas said Saturday it was reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, as Egypt intensified efforts to broker a deal to end the months-long war and stave off a possible Israeli ground offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Russia renews attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector as Kyiv launches drones at southern Russia
Russia launched a barrage of missiles against Ukraine overnight, in attacks that appeared to target the country's energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Russia said its air defense systems had intercepted more than 60 Ukrainian drones over the southern Krasnodar region.