The just-released visuals for Rema’s Woman, out as a single back in July, feels like a rite of passage for the young star into the cult of pop masculinity. Male Nigerian artistes have made songs about longing for women, idolising women, and declaring they love only women. Rema, whose 2019 single Lady first flirted with these notions, makes huge thematic statements in the video for Woman.
Interestingly, the opening finds Rema facing a mirror lined with lit candles, almost like a little shrine. Photographs of various women are clipped to a line and some are strewn about. He sings about being in love with them all, and describes their personalities. The women in question do synchronised dancing in a sprawling, red-carpeted hall, manipulated lighting casting them as dark silhouettes. There’s even a Biblical reference that shows Rema being offered an apple, as Eve did to Adam.
The chorus finds Rema declaring he loves women as well as how they can be his weakness. Importantly, though, the song is a love letter to them.
When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.
Leave a reply