Merna Announces FOR SEASONS: LOVE IN A TIME OF WAR EP
The five-track project was recorded at Toronto's Revolution Recording studio.
Palestinian-Canadian R&B and neo-soul artist, GRAMMY-nominated songwriter and producer Merna has announced her forthcoming self-produced EP, For Seasons: Love in a Time of War, arriving October 9th. Merna made the announcement on Instagram, sharing a first glimpse of the project through a snippet featuring the sound of the Arabic oud, giving listeners their first taste of the world she's created.
Rooted in neo-soul, alternative R&B, and contemporary soul, For Seasons: Love in a Time of War is a five-track meditation and prayer that creates an intimate space for stillness, reflection, and emotional grounding. Self-produced by Merna and recorded at Toronto's historic Revolution Recording, the EP features instrumental contributions from Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest, Lucy Pearl) and drummer Larnell Lewis (Snarky Puppy). At its core, the project explores love, faith, surrender and healing, bringing together Merna's contemporary R&B sensibility with organic instrumentation and elements of her ancestral roots.
For Merna, the release marks a return inward and a deeper connection to where she comes from. Born in Jordan and raised across Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Delaware, Seattle and Toronto, she has spent her life moving between cultures, experiences that have shaped the deeply empathetic and globally minded perspective at the heart of her artistry. From an early age, Merna was drawn to the intricacies of vocal arrangements, studying artists including Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, while also finding inspiration in Bob Marley, classic soul and traditional West Asian and North African sounds.
Early mentorship from DJ Jazzy Jeff in Toronto and Delaware eventually led to collaborations with artists and producers including Mac Miller, James Poyser of The Roots, Doc McKinney of The Weeknd, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A GRAMMY-nominated songwriter, Merna has penned songs for artists including JoJo, Rapsody, Baby Rose, Charlotte Day Wilson, Cory Henry, Khamari, Syd, and Demi Lovato. She has continued to build her own world as a solo artist, with her independent 2025 LP Ours To Keep surpassing 2.5 million streams and welcoming more than 200,000 new listeners into her growing global community.
With For Seasons: Love in a Time of War, Merna invites listeners to slow down, reconnect, and sit with what remains when everything else falls away.
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