Noisettes singer and bassist Shingai Shoniwa has dropped a new video for We Roll, the third single from her debut solo album Too Bold. The uplifting promo for the Afrobeat-influenced pop number is directed by award-winning British filmmaker Sheila Nortley.
We Roll is one of the most defiantly upbeat tracks on Too Bold, and one of several (alongside the likes of South London Safari and the stunning Ghost Town) that celebrate Shoniwa’s pride in her shared British and Zimbabwean heritage. Here the Lewisham-raised vocalist proudly states: “I got the African heat, coming through with that London cheek/Rock & Roll in my blood its peak, Warriors in my ancestry.”
That positive, empowering message was something the artist was keen to project from the offset. Shoniwa told Zimbabwe’s News Day: “The message on ‘Too Bold’ is that of positivity and encouragement in the face of great challenges. A lot of us from the diaspora and marginalised communities in the West face a lot of discriminations every day. This often starts when you are kids and I wanted to put out a song which was just speaking of the challenges that women and the black community face. I wanted to send a message out there that no one should dim your fire, so that is the message.”
She added: “I have gone deep into some of my personal experiences like childhood grief and how we had to recover from the post-colonial world. ‘Too Bold’ will give people a message of hope and it is an album that I hope will be appreciated by all generations…I put my heart and soul into it.”
Shoniwa has also spoken powerfully about the challenges young black female artists face breaking into the UK music industry, criticising what she argues is a painful ‘one in one out quota‘. In a recent interview with the Aberdeen Evening Express, she said “It doesn’t make sense that you can have a 90% white male line-up at UK festivals. There’s only so long that we can deny that African melodies, rhythms and style underpin a huge part of what pop music is. You wouldn’t have R&B, soul, hip hop, UK garage, reggae, dubstep, jazz, blues, rock and roll, aspects of punk… Most of the music that we love today wouldn’t be here without the backbone of African migration rhythms and melodies running through its spine. For far too long African voices, or voices of African descent, and women are left out of the story of pop music.”
The Noisettes, who scored noughties hits with the memorable disco-rock groove Don’t Upset The Rhythm (Go Baby Go) and Motown-esque corker Never Forget You, have remained largely dormant since their third LP, 2012’s Contact. There have been significant challenges for Shingai in the meantime – not least her ordeal at the hands of an ex-partner who was subsequently convicted of stalking and harassment in 2016. The talented singer-songwriter has shown tremendous courage in the way she has bounced back from the trauma both through music and other ventures: over recent years she’s undertaken modelling work, provided voiceovers for children’s television, and even had a crack at romcom acting in Cook Off, the first Zimbabwean film to stream on Netflix.
With 2019 EP Ancient Futures and last year’s Too Bold under her belt, the Londoner has now shown that she’s more than capable of making her way as a gifted solo performer in her own right, as well as an artist who is unafraid to dip her toes into complex and thought-provoking social and political themes. Shoniwa confirmed this in a frank October interview with CNN, saying: “I’m trying to graduate from sneaking conscious messages into friendly, sexy music. I am not afraid to address darker themes and talk about the heightened state we’re all in.”
