SHAB: A Conversation on “Santa Baby,” Freedom, and the Journey Behind “One Suitcase”

Dive into this candid conversation with Shab as we explore her holiday single, the heart behind One Suitcase, and the transformative power of live performance…

We love your rendition of Santa Baby! What inspired you to put your own spin on this iconic holiday classic? 

This year we really wanted to release a Christmas song for 2024 and I had been thinking about a number of different options for our choice. There are a wealth of Christmas songs out there, but we didn’t want to do a song that had been that had been covered too many times but also did not want to issue an effort where the song was too obscure. And I was drawn to Eartha Kitt’s iconic rendition of the song from years ago, so that’s how the choice unfolded. How does your version of Santa Baby differ from previous renditions by artists like Eartha Kitt or Kylie Minogue? 

Eartha’s version is classic Eartha Kitt: sexy and sassy with a little bit of a growl. It seemed to me that Kylie’s cover was a little bit more straightforward. I guess that if I did anything, I was looking for a version that threaded the needle between those two approaches.

Can you tell us more about how your cultural influences shaped this rendition? 

We truly wanted to put more of a Middle Eastern vibe into the song but really couldn’t figure out a suitable way of doing so. The tune is composed in a readily identifiable and traditional Western four count meter: and it’s hard to do anything with that reality without substantially changing the song to the point of unrecognizability. I think that’s the reason is to why most versions of SANTA BABY follow the same production pattern. 

But we did try and add a little bit of belly dancing at the end of the video!

What do you hope fans will feel or experience when they listen to your festive single? 

All that I’m trying to do is to put a smile on the faces of my fans and make them a little bit more happy during this holiday season. There’s not a lot of intellectual depth to the exercise: and I think it’s that simple.

Your cover of Santa Baby comes ahead of your sophomore album One Suitcase. How does this track tie into the themes of the album, if at all? 

SANTA BABY is a holiday standard that has been recorded by various artists and is meant more as a novelty than anything else. There’s really nothing like that on ONE SUITCASE, with almost all of the songs standing as expressions of my own personalized experiences or mindset.

Can you share how songs like Swerve and Afterglow reflect the personal themes of love, resilience, and self-discovery in One Suitcase? 

While AFTERGLOW is a celebration of the warmth and fullness brought into your life by the people that you love, it is also a nod to the glow that fills you up after some passionate interaction with your lover. Clearly, that is a song that I could never have sung in my birth country and, in that regard, the song could almost be seen as a celebration of Western freedoms for women. 

SWERVE, on the other hand, is about the desire for your lover to be able to keep pace in a changing and dynamic relationship. I possibly could have made the essence of this audio in my birth country — but as to the video, I have no doubt that I could be facing severe punishments if I were still in Iran. And as such, it serves as a celebration of the freedom and womanhood with which I have been blessed to encounter in the West.

With One Suitcase featuring 21 tracks, what can fans expect in terms of style, collaborations, and storytelling? 

ONE SUITCASE is very much a collection of reflections, meditations and anthems borne out of my experiences as a young woman transitioning from fundamentalist conceptions about femininity and womanhood into Western sensibilities of liberty, choice and personal freedom. 

On this album I’ve continued my longstanding partnership with my producer Damon Sharpe – but we have blanched out a bit to work with some other producers, including the legendary Dallas Austin, a rising British American hitmaker named JHart, the dynamic production duo of Eric Zayne & Naz Tokio, Mike Manning, Remi Rafael &:RoccStar. 

And while there is a collage of genres, rhythmic styles and other musical stylings on this album what seems interesting to most of my team is that all of the songs which I have co-written here seem to cohere in relation to my personal vibe. 

We’ve even got my first ballad on the record, the title track co-composed together with Dallas Austin & Naz Tokio — and I hope that it makes you cry!

You recently became an ambassador for Choose Love. How does this new role intersect with your music career? 

Well, I am sure that the overriding reason that CHOOSE LOVE askes me to serve in this new capacity is frankly due to the fact that I am a musician…as well as a refugee! 

My hope is that, by understanding my own story as a refugee, my fans and listeners may become more receptive to and understanding of issues affecting refugees. Even while I have taken a vocal role in condemning the horrific human rights situation in Iran, I am not aspiring to become some outspoken voice in the political firmament. I mean, who really cares about a celebrity’s leanings when it comes to political parties? My only interest in speaking out on social issues is in situations where basic human rights are fostered and promoted.

Your personal journey as a refugee is incredibly inspiring. How does your story inform the music you create and the causes you support? 

Most of the songs on ONE SUITCASE document my own personal journey as a woman who fled persecution, repression and medieval notions about womanhood in favor of the sometimes-confusing liberty and freedom of choice that women enjoy in the West. To be transparent, I am probably still in certain regards not fully free of the outdated and misogynist ideas that proliferate among the addled old men who rule over the Persian masses today. 

So in that sense, many of the songs on ONE SUITCASE are works founded in self-reflection and after-the-fact realizations.

You’ve performed in some incredible venues, including sold-out dates at The O2 in London. What’s the energy like when connecting with your fans live? 

Ohmigosh, it’s unreal. I think that it’s the coolest thing ever to be able to perform and connect with my fans — and those shows are among the fondest memories of my life, as there is not much better than being able to make a physical connection to someone through music and entertainment.