A true genre-bending artist, Dove Nicol has over the years proven that she cannot be defined by a genre, whether it’s alternative R&B, Afrobeats, or Dancehall, the versatile queen has the ability to manoeuvre every sound and produce records and music that are sonically appealing to the ears with mass replay value. Over the past couple of years, she’s released “Calm Down”, “Freetown Girl” and “Under Pressure”, records not too similar to one another but always captivate the listening audience in a way that only she knows how. An electrifying artist, always coming up with new concepts and ideas in her music. Her storytelling abilities cover a lot of things from romance to trauma to anarchy. “Sky” is her latest offering and it’s a mix of garage, drum and bass, and dancehall. It denotes a story about people in a society that are willing to go the extra mile to make it to be successful but are being held back by their fellow man and society’s rules, norms, and customs.
She sings from her experiences in Sierra Leone and that of people living in the country. People that work hard but are not being paid their worth, people that are seeking happiness but are discriminated against and judged based on how different they are from everyone else. On the record, she says, “Hold Up, Hold Up, The Sky Is Falling”, a line that is a playful analogy to anarchy. Dove Nicol is telling the world that she is liberating herself from the shackles of society. She is not conforming to any rule or customs built to confine her. She’s her own being, unfettering herself into the eccentric creative person that she can truly be. “No one will hear me coming”, is a call to anyone listening that when the time comes for her resurgence, no one would be able to stop her.
Accompanying the single is a stunning visual. Shot in the beautiful country of Sierra Leone, the visuals mirror the message in the song. 5 seconds in, we see a frustrated young man fretting over the meagre reward he gets for his long hours of work. In one scene, we see a bullied child without help from onlookers. The video depicts various economic and psychological manacles society throws at people to keep them docile. Eccentric people in today’s society are feared and as such are attacked by one-dimensional thinking individuals who can’t see the world outside their scope of vision. But as the visuals prolong, you can see people having fun, at a rave, dancing with no care in the world. This is a mental liberation. Whether it’s running on shores of the beach, raving in a club or dancing in your own unique way, it’s okay to be an anomaly in a society filled with pain and grief. The visuals tell an interesting story, a sharp contrast from frustration to happiness, depicting that we can only always make our own rules, create our own happiness and that no matter what society throws at us, we can break free from the tethers of the mind and of society and be who we truly are.
The best of the best are not people that conform to society. The best of the best are rule breakers, the people that go outside of the norm to make themselves better through a driven mindset, dedication, hard work and an unbridled approach to life and success and that’s what Dove Nicol’s “Sky” is all about.
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