A young musician has dedicated her upcoming first single to her late father.

Pier Simons, 25, said she will release Here’s to Me on Saturday. The title comes from a favourite phrase of her father, Wayne “Gussie” Augustus, she added.

Ms Simons said: “It was nice to record it because it was a tribute to my dad, so I always channelled him when I sang this.

“I would always have a picture of him with me and I would just sing to him as I needed, which made this even more special to me.”

Ms Simons described Here’s to Me as a feel-good country-pop ballad.

She said it was intended to be “fun and catchy,” while also being relatable to anyone dealing with loss.

Ms Simons added that the name came from one of his favourite sayings — “here’s to you, here’s to me, best of friends we’ll for ever be; but if perchance we disagree, bless you and here’s to me”.

Mr Augustus, a bartender at Bermuda Fun Golf in Dockyard, died on March 2022 after his motorcycle crashed on South Road, Southampton, near Church Bay.

Ms Simons said that she and her father were incredibly close and described him as “one of my best friends”.

“I was his little girl,” she said. “He and I used to work together, and when he was off from work, we would go for lunch dates and just enjoy any moments we had together.”

Ms Simons added: “I miss those days — now they’re just memories that I’ll always cherish and remember.”

She said that she created the song shortly after her father’s death as a way to grieve and cope during a period of depression.

Ms Simons said that after working on the song throughout 2022 and performing it at various open-mike events, she was eventually persuaded to have it professionally produced.

She said that as time went on, it evolved from an “unplugged” acoustic ballad to a song with drums and a bassline.

Ms Simons admitted that its production stalled after the first studio that she used went out of business. The single was completed under The Music Institute.

She added: “It wasn’t challenging at all to sing this — it was perfect for me because I love my dad so much.

“We were always so close and I feel like I can always have a part of me with him whenever I hear the song or sing the song.”

Ms Simons fell in love with music and performance when she was about 11 years old.

She said that she started off performing in school plays before taking up singing and playing guitar.

Ms Simons said she became committed to her music again at university after a hiatus of several years, explaining that she went back to it out of a sense of loneliness.

She added that once she returned home, she involved herself in Bermuda’s music scene by performing in bands and busking.

Ms Simons said that Here’s to Me would be released on all her social-media platforms on Saturday.

She added that her next goal was to release an EP, also known as an extended play, which will have several songs.