Chantal Kreviazuk’s song “Into Me” is a beautiful call and challenge to fight for and believe in lasting love, despite the ever-present reality of human fragility.
This call is revealed through Kreviazuk’s quintessential driving piano base and expressive vocals, as well as the music video directed by Michael Maxxis and featuring an exquisite performance by dancers Heather Ogden and Guillaume Côté. The interplay between sound and visuals is superb:
In an age where everyone seems perpetually and increasingly jaded about marital love, the song is needed more now than it was 10 years ago.
Into Me was released as part of her “Hard Sail” album, which focused on themes of navigating the challenges of long-term marital partnership. Kreviazuk and husband Raine Maida of early 2000s alternative rock scene Canadian band, Our Lady Peace, have been open about their own need for intentional, chosen, committed love in the midst of the challenges of life.
A Canadian singer-songwriter whose success has extended into her own life as an artist across multiple albums as well as via songwriting for much bigger acts, Kreviazuk’s gift for disarming lyrics, strong melodies, and a heavy focus on the true essentials for human meaning reveals itself here:
Like a little girl, little girl
In another bad dream
I’m waking up
You’re still next to me
When I go away, go away
When I turn the key
I’m petrified
Oh, please don’t leave
But I’m finally starting to believe
That you’re not, you’re not going anywhere, anywhere
No, you’re not, you’re not going anywhere, anywhere
Yes, I’m finally starting to believe
That you’re into me
The song expertly explores the heights and depths of the vulnerability necessary for a true and lasting love. Kreviazuk reveals the still-persistent question, even after so many years of faithfulness and love, of wondering if her husband may still choose to leave—not because of anything he has done, but because of the reality of human fragility in the face of being laid bare.
In a marriage, a person hands over their whole being to the mercy of another. In a religious context, one also includes a trust in a divine power making way for this kind of true love. Kreviazuk seems to grasp all of this, and triumphantly chooses to believe that “this thing—it’s really happening” in reference to her decades-long marriage.
In the face of the mystery of human wills, circumstances, and the vicissitudes of life, nothing can be certain. To make a vow to another is a leap of faith, regardless of the strength of the discernment prior to such a vow.
Kreviazuk challenges the listener to make that leap, and to continue to choose to believe in the power of love and its ability to carry a couple through life’s unavoidable chaos.
She does this by radically choosing it herself, and pouring out this choice into song.
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