You may recognise Debbii Dawson from the seventeenth season of America’s Got Talent where she wowed the judges by performing a slowed down version of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.” She was voted through unanimously, however was later eliminated from the competition, but it seems the joke’s on them! Debbii’s latest single “Too Strange for the Circus” is a country-tinged slice of pop that certainly proves Debbii is one to watch for 2024.
Channelling her inner Dolly Parton / Stevie Nicks, Debbii’s unique twang soars effortlessly over the infectious musicality that feels gorgeously light and fluffy all the way through. Dawson describes an all-too-familiar isolation in “Too Strange for the Circus”—the floating loneliness of feeling just a few steps too far to be in anyone else’s orbit. She waltzes around a space metaphor, leaning into the weightlessness of the feeling: “I’m too strange for the circus /too human for Mars /too deep for the surface.”
Debbii is from Minnesota and describes herself as a singer, songwriter, and producer. Her grandfather immigrated to the US from India. On America’s Got Talent, Debbii explained that he taught himself to play the organ by drawing an organ keyboard on the pavement with charcoal. He then went on to teach Debbii’s father and herself in the same way. Pretty awesome, hey? Debbii will be making her London debut on 17th January at Folklore but I’m afraid its already sold out!
“Too Strange for the Circus” follows Dawson’s recent EP, “Learning,” also in stores now.
