Indigenous artist Siibii from Montreal and Juno Award winner Aysanabee collaborate on the hauntingly beautiful track “Body to Body”—a moving anthem that sanctifies intimacy, honors love as a source of healing, and transforms closeness into a means of empowerment and resistance.
Stream: “Body to Body” – Siibii ft. Aysanabee
This song resonates with me like a gentle heartbeat—an homage to the sacred union of skin, breath, and spirit, where touch becomes restorative and closeness serves as a healing force.
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Touch holds great power – the intimacy of skin against skin and breath against breath. For Siibii, a queer, trans, non-binary Indigenous artist based in Montreal, this closeness transcends affection: it’s an act of reclamation, challenging the colonial forces that aimed to disconnect Indigenous peoples from their bodies, pleasures, and strengths. “Body to Body,” their profoundly stirring duet with Aysanabee, is imbued with a spirit of healing. It’s a song of radical intimacy—of connection as medicine, and love as a form of resistance.
“Body to Body” – Siibii and Aysanabee
I ache in this energy
Oh, what you do to me
Blood rushing to my cheeks
I feel you in every beat
Your love is medicine
Each time I let you in
Your touch is healing me
Your touch is what I need
Atwood Magazine is thrilled to premiere “Body to Body,” a stunning anthem rich with soul, human depth, and the intensity that arises when we are most vulnerable. Released today, September 17, via Ishkode Records, the track serves as both a love song and a declaration of reclamation—elegant and impactful, evolving from spine-tingling piano chords into a sweeping wave of warmth, wonder, and liberation. The music video, directed by Vera Oh, brings us face-to-face with both artists and their band, featuring tender moments of intimacy and joy between actors Manu and Maryam. From playful shopping cart rides and silly embraces on a basketball court to quiet moments of closeness on train tracks, the video highlights the sacredness of intimacy central to the song.
“Colonization disrupted Indigenous family and social structures through residential schools and the imposition of Christian beliefs, shaming intimacy, demonizing sexuality, and severing generations from their bodies and relationships,” Siibii shares with Atwood Magazine. “This song stands in direct opposition to those enforced ideologies, reclaiming touch, love, and physical connection as natural, sacred, and healing.”
The song begins with a hush of vulnerability: Siibii’s delicate yet powerful voice rides atop bright piano chords, resembling the first glimmers of light in darkness. There’s an intimacy in those opening moments—a feeling of being drawn near, of secrets softly shared—and as the verse unfolds, tension builds alongside their words. “Your love is medicine / Each time I let you in / Your touch is healing me / Your touch is what I need” resonates with breathtaking conviction, the first chorus bursting forth in both relief and revelation:
Face to face
Skin to skin
Body to body
You’re my medicine
My medicine
The simplicity of the chorus conceals its potency. “Face to face, skin to skin, body to body, you’re my medicine” serves as a mantra of connection—a reclamation of touch as sacred, essential, and deeply healing rather than shameful or profane. By elevating closeness to a form of medicine, Siibii transforms physical connection into an act of restoration, defiance, and love simultaneously. This emotional core celebrates vulnerability rather than repressing it, intertwining the weight of history with the potential for renewal. The repetition itself takes on a ritualistic quality, echoing the heartbeat Siibii later describes, embodying the personal tenderness of a love song and the collective significance of cultural reclamation.
From that pivotal moment, the song expands outward. Drums, guitar, and organ swell beneath Siibii’s voice, creating a soundscape that is both cinematic and stirring. It is in this space that Aysanabee emerges, with his rich baritone grounding the track with warmth and gravity that contrasts and ultimately complements Siibii’s alto. Where Siibii ignites the spark, Aysanabee provides the steady flame, guiding the song into deeper emotional realms.
As their voices entwine in the second chorus, “Body to Body” reaches its true zenith—a cathartic expression of intimacy and energy, where passion is laid bare and shared between two artists at their peak. This climax, both sonic and emotional, merges tenderness with intensity, revealing the full weight of the song in harmony. The result is electrifying: felt in the chest, in the pulse, in the tender spaces where vulnerabilities are held. This is the moment where connection transcends into something not only healing but
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Montreal Indigenous artist Siibii collaborates with Juno Award winner Aysanabee on the deeply moving track “Body to Body” – a stunning, soulful anthem that honors intimacy as sacred, recognizes love as a source of healing, and transforms closeness into a powerful act of healing, empowerment, and resistance.