Award-winning interdisciplinary artist Rainbow Chan has shared ‘Four Blessings’, the latest single from her forthcoming third album, The Bridal Lament, due for release on 14 August via Music In Exile.
Stream it HERE.
The Hong Kong-Australian artist continues to blur the boundaries between experimental pop, electronic music and cultural storytelling, with ‘Four Blessings’ weaving the piercing sound of the suona, a traditional Chinese oboe associated with weddings, into a contemporary landscape of manipulated vocals, textured beats and left-field R&B production.
Drawing its title from the blessings traditionally spoken during the Chinese pre-wedding hair-combing ritual, the song reimagines an ancient rite through a contemporary perspective. Rather than embracing the promises of marriage and domestic fulfilment, Chan’s lyrics interrogate those expectations, tracing the uncertainty and emotional exhaustion that can accompany modern ideas of love. The result is less a rejection of romance than a quiet assertion that love can exist beyond inherited conventions.
“‘Four Blessings’ is written from the perspective of someone disillusioned by love, but not yet ready to give up hope,” Chan explains. That emotional tension sits at the heart of the track, balancing vulnerability with quiet resilience while allowing centuries-old ceremonial sounds to coexist with forward-looking electronic production.
The single further expands the world of The Bridal Lament, an album born from Chan’s acclaimed interdisciplinary stage work of the same name. Developed through performances at Sydney Festival, Liveworks Festival, OzAsia, Arts House and Riverside Theatres, the project draws upon Chan’s Weitou heritage, exploring the historical bridal lament tradition in which brides publicly sang and wept before leaving their families. Across the album, these rituals become a framework for examining identity, grief, womanhood and cultural memory through an unmistakably contemporary lens.
Previous singles ‘Under the Laurel Tree’, ‘Pomelo Water’, ‘Smoke and Pepper’ and ‘Seven Sisters’ have each revealed different facets of the record, moving between art pop, electronic experimentation and intimate balladry. Together with ‘Four Blessings’, they point towards an album that continues Chan’s longstanding exploration of diaspora, matrilineal inheritance and the ways tradition can be reshaped rather than preserved unchanged.
