Singer Simi has said that she expected backlash and attacks from critics after the release of her new song ‘Woman’.
Simi made this known during a recent Instagram live session.
According to the 33-year-old, she was genuinely surprised about the positive reception of the song because she expected attacks and criticism after releasing the single.
“There were some ideas about women that were not very useful for women but I felt like it would be good to use my sound to speak out for my people (women.) The funny thing is that I expected more backlash and attacks after I dropped the song. But I am genuinely surprised that people are receptive to the song. I think that people are more open to discussions especially if one is privileged in life,” she said in parts.
Speaking further, the mother of one said: I had an interview a few days ago and the interviewer asked me ‘Do you hate men?’ I replied that I don’t think I have ever said or done anything that insinuates that I hate men, I don’t have any reason to hate men. I simply want better things for women; I just want women to have what they deserve. I may not be able to change the world today or tomorrow but I am hoping that it can be a part of the steps that we are going to take to (get to) that point. Obviously, things used to be worse than this but thankfully we have more women now that are more outspoken than in the past.”
The song leans into the defiant ethos of Afrobeat to reclaim the narrative for women and turns Simi’s long-held socio-political beliefs on equality into a sonic thesis for women’s liberation.
Sampling Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s songs ‘Suffering and Smiling’ and ‘Lady’, the song examines how women are denigrated by men and even women themselves.
The song follows the #NobodyLikeWoman campaign which Simi kicked off on Instagram on October 8 with a black and white picture of her and her daughter with the words “How can she ask for that kind of money, is she not pregnant?”
#NobodyLikeWoman soon became a storytelling challenge for women to share some of the unique and harrowing stigmas they deal with.
