Emanuel Shares Reverent Visual for ‘Black Woman’

Toronto R&B artist and songwriter Emanuel has released the visual for his new single “Black Woman” – a moving, celebratory ode to the resilience of Black women.

In a time of reckoning and racial injustice, the song offers what Emanuel hopes all of his music can inspire: healing and self-growth.

“Black Woman is about reconciliation and also celebration – celebrating how strong our women are and how they hold us up,” says Emanuel. “People might think this song was written as a response to the moment right now but it’s saying the exact same thing it was saying when it was written a year ago – ‘I see you, I recognize you, I appreciate you and I love you.”

“Black Woman” was written while Emanuel was working on his debut album in the Cayman Islands. In the days leading up to the night that he would write the song, he was reflecting on Black history and the gratitude he was feeling for being blessed to be in such a beautiful place. Having watched the 1971 conversation between James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni, Emanuel was evaluating his relationships with the Black women in his life. After three days of focused creative intention to write an impactful song, inspiration struck in a divine moment one night when he heard the chord progression his producer was repeating. Suddenly, Emanuel‘s feelings, memories, and self-reflections came pouring out as he sang the first lines of “Black Woman“: Cocoa butter kisses, wipe my tears away…

“Black woman, sometimes
Sad woman, but all of the time
She’s a queen from another place
Why are you so displaced?
Sh?’s a goddess walking on earth, baby”

“The biggest message I would want to be received by this song is ‘Wake up and see the queens around you and see these beautiful women and the work that they do and stop hindering them,” says Emanuel. “On a personal level, for other black men who have active black women in their lives or who encounter black women in their life, I hope this song inspires them to take stock to see if they hold any negative filters when they view black women, to take stock of how black women are treated, and to really appreciate them for who they are. The message of ‘Black Woman’ is a display of love to try to wake people up.”