Do you remember the last time Rihanna has graced our earbuds with a solo project? It was 2016. To put it on perspective, Obama was in the White House. Since then, America elected a fucking actual fascist as President, and, somehow, made it so the Republican party could actually say out loud the stuff they mumble quietly. Overt racism, homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, etc, went from being something pushed aside and shamed to something folks were visibly proud of! And, of course, that awful human ended his time in office by turning COVID into pure chaos instead of working hard to get the country aligned on it. And, yes, we are still picking up the pieces of that nonesense today. (I stand by the fact that if we had clear, concise COVID messaging from the get-go, we wouldn’t be in the current financial mess we are in today)
When I learned that Rihanna was dropping a new single on 10.28, the day after my birthday, it was the first time I felt a shred of optimism in, dear god, 6 years? Like, maybe- just maybe- Rihanna was the key to returning the world to order and kindness. The song itself was written in memory of Chadwick Boseman. The lyrics, however, are actually about finding strength through grief. So maybe, just maybe, Rihanna isn’t the prophet we needed, but the catalyst for building up the strength to get through the pain of now and help encourage and motivate us to fix it. Anyways- “Lift Me Up” is a stunning ballad that I’ve already listened to 10 times and will keep relistening to for the rest of the day, maybe longer. And you probably should, too.