‘The song celebrates the joy, love and huge personality Celine brought to our family’

The track, Big Little Life (Cece’s Song), was written by Celine’s father, Ben, together with singer-songwriter Bertie.

Ben said the song celebrated the joy and love that Celine brought to her family during her short life, as well as her “huge personality”.

“This is not a sad song, although it comes from a very sad story,” said Ben. “There was so much joy in Celine’s life. She had a huge personality, she demanded attention and she made an enormous impact on all of us.

“As a family, we wanted to create something that captures who she really was. My only endeavour was not to become a victim of the grief. I wanted to tell Celine’s story and create something positive that celebrates her life and forms part of her legacy. I’m reaching the point where I feel so lucky and happy to have known her.”

Celine’s personality is also captured on the track’s cover, which features a canvas created by Celine, her twin brother, Jesse, and six-year-old sister, Luna. A short video of the children making the artwork is also shown when the song is streamed on Spotify.

Bertie (left) & Ben Ziff with the painting which forms the front cover of the song Big Little Life (Cece's Song)[Missing Credit]

Ben, who plays the drums as a hobby but had never written a song before, approached Bertie in September 2025 with the idea of creating a song in Celine’s memory.

Bertie, whose music has been streamed hundreds of thousands of times, had recently experienced his own loss after his mother Yvonne died from leukaemia in April 2024.

He had previously written a song called Kin about his mother, and just weeks after Celine died, he and Ben started working on Big Little Life (Cece’s Song) together.

Bertie said: “When someone passes away, people often say: ‘If there is anything I can do, let me know.’ When Ben asked me to write a song about Celine, I initially didn’t know whether I could do it.”

But he said that working on the song “became a second process of grief after losing my mum”, while at the same time, the experience was “incredibly uplifting”.

Bertie added: “From the beginning, we knew we didn’t want this to be a sad song. It needed to feel true to Celine and do something meaningful for her. I’m very proud of what we’ve created.”

The song was produced by Ru Lemer, who has worked with artists including Tom Grennan, Foals and Nile Rodgers. Ben, Bertie and Ru all feature on vocals on the final recording.

It was mastered at London’s famous Air Studios by Grammy-winning mastering engineer John Webber, who has worked on five UK number ones and with artists such as Olivia Dean, David Bowie, Elton John and Duran Duran.

Ben said Big Little Life (Cece’s Song) would be the first of several legacy projects he and his wife, Sophia, were hoping to create in Celine’s memory, including with Camp Simcha.

He said: “She was only with our family for one year and 19 days, but the happiness she brought and the impact she had were enormous. She had a little life, but it was a big little life.”

Big Little Life (Cece’s Song) is available to download/stream on:
iTunes

Spotify
Apple Music

YouTube 

and all major music platforms.

www.biglittlelife.co.uk