Tei Shi Shares Single 'Best Be Leaving' and New West Coast Show Dates

Canadian-Colombian indie pop auteur Tei Shi makes a powerful return with her latest single and first offering of the year, “Best Be Leaving”, a deeply personal and introspective track that touches on the inevitability of letting go. The empowering and cathartic track signals a new creative era for Tei Shi, offering a glimpse into a new body of work born from a transformative retreat.

Coinciding with the news, Tei Shi has announced two special headlining shows this Spring: Pappy & Harriet’s in Joshua Tree on May 15th and the Consetalltion Room in Santa Ana on May 16th. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 AM local time. Purchase tickets here.

“‘Best Be Leaving’ is a song about letting go of someone you love. It's about the lonely fact that sometimes relationships hit a place where the best thing you can do is walk away.” Tei Shi reflects. “Throughout life we're all saying goodbye to or walking away from someone at any given moment...it's part of navigating our lives and the world, and for me that was real in a few different, important relationships in my life when I wrote the song. ‘Best Be Leaving’ is kind of my bittersweet soundtrack to that realization.” 

Written during a week-long creative retreat in the backwoods of Vancouver Island, Canada, “Best Be Leaving” showcases Tei Shi’s fusion of ethereal melodies with her signature whisper-laden vocals, raw lyricism, and evocative production, done alongside longtime collaborators Noah Beresin and Tommy English. The accompanying visualizer serves as a symbolic act of catharsis as we see Tei Shi shedding her long hair in front of the camera during the creation of the song’s artwork. Embracing the song’s meaning, an ever-evolving Tei Shi steps into a bold new and fully independent artistic era.

The single follows a run of intimate, sold-out jazz club performances in New York and Los Angeles, where she reimagined her catalog and performed covers and standards alongside prolific jazz musicians on both coasts. It comes on the heels of her critically acclaimed eponymous independent album Valerie, and a sold-out five-show run in New York City, where she captivated audiences in I Can’t Make Sense, a gripping new play written by her friend and collaborator, Vogue Giambri. The play was inspired by Giambri’s personal experience of losing her mother in 2023 while on tour with Tei Shi, supporting Kimbra. 

Building on the momentum of Valerie and her theatrical debut, Tei Shi carves out her own space in the musical landscape. Known for weaving vulnerability into lush, genre-bending soundscapes, Tei Shi seamlessly blends pop, R&B, indie shoegaze, tropicalia, and bachata influences with dynamic storytelling and bilingual lyricism, further solidifying her place as one of today’s most intriguing and compelling artists.

UPCOMING TEI SHI SHOWS

5/15 - Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room 

5/16 - Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s

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