*With a catalog of hits and devoted fans that have supported since Day1, Ledisi is aware of the power of her music.
And like any singer worth their salt, she knows her freedom to touch on anything in song is made possible by a slew of notable vocalist that use their voice to key folk in on issues that affect them and their community.
With her latest album, “The Crown,” Ledisi builds on what she is known for, songs that entertain as well as educate, uplift and inspire. As she would label it, “some feel good music for people to feel better.”
Chatting with Madame Noire, the “Pieces of Me” entertainer detailed her process in putting together material for “The Crown,” which flowed out of her while preparing for her Super Bowl performance of the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” alongside a group of 125 New Orleans students.
“When the Super Bowl came, I just felt like writing, and I didn’t have a plan. The Crown was not the plan. It was not supposed to be here,” Ledisi told Madame Noire. “But God said, ‘Okay, just keep writing.’ And I just kept writing. I didn’t know what I wanted to say. I didn’t know what I wanted to write. Every day was different. I’m not going through half the stuff I wrote about, but it was feelings. I felt calm. I did not feel rushed. I felt at peace, and I wasn’t on tour; I had a summer. I was like, ‘Oh God, I get a summer,’ you know what I mean? Everything came out like an affirmation. Everything came out peacefully because I was calm. I felt like the stories were to be written to create emotions. I wanted to feel good.”
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“Then I started looking at the world and where we were headed for the next year, for 2025, and I was like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna need something to feel better,’” she continued. I’m gonna need you to get in the car and drive and just play something that feels good. It doesn’t matter about age or is this relevant or not. I don’t care. I just want to create some feel good music for people to feel better. I’m known for that.”
As for those who laid the inspirational blueprint for “The Crown” and her as an artist, Ledisi wasn’t shy in sounding off on on her musical influencers.
“Fela Kuti, who I love, Nina Simone, you hear it all in there,” she said. “Another person I loved was Miriam Makeba, because she’s our African version of Nina Simone, and Billie Holiday. I mean, oh my God, with ‘Strange Fruit,’ that was huge for me. Of course Bob Marley is. He could make a protest song feel good. Him and Stevie Wonder, those are my little forces right there. Not little, but those are the forces that made me love music. Songs that spoke of stories and protests and social change, those are really great references to go to. I love the work that Lauryn Hill did when she was speaking of those things, like, we have that in our era as well, it’s just not celebrated enough, and that’s why I’m glad that the Recording Academy did the social change award, and hopefully BET will start doing more of that. I’m advocating for those things. We need them.”
Released on April 25, 2025, “The Crown” is Ledisi’s 12th album. The 11-song opus features only one guest, Trombone Short, who lends his talent to the title track.
Among the album’s singles are “Love You Too,” which peaked at number 14 on the Adult R&B Songs chart and “BLKWMN,” a tune Ledisi penned to “celebrate Black women that have added to our world, politically, spiritually, culturally.
“I didn’t know I was going to write that for that, but I’ve always felt like I needed to and it was right in December, that whole feeling. I woke up at 4 am like, ‘I gotta write this. I don’t know what this is, but here it comes,’ and it came. I love that it came naturally. This whole project, I told you, it’s just been a freeform of freely going here, God used me for whatever. I’m just going to put it out there.”
When it comes to Black women and their respective crowns, Ledisi emphasized the importance of maintaining that headpiece in order to get through whatever life throws at them. To hear her tell it, the key is to “give yourself grace.”
“Only say yes to things that are energy-driven, where it feels good to do it, that you don’t feel an obligation to receive something back,” she stated. “Don’t compete with others. Compete with yourself. Prayer is good. Any kidn of peace of mind, because it’s nothing like having your mind together. The crown is not just something you put on, it’s something you wear inside internally. How do you feel about yourself? Love yourself, and that’s easy to say, hard to do. But, every day, give yourself the grace to say, ‘I got through that, I’m proud of myself.’ You say it. Don’t wait for someone to say it to you. I used to wait for people to receive me and to love me and say great things about me. I used to hope for that. Will they love my music? And it’s nothing like having Black women say, ‘Oh you’re dope.’ That feels good for real. I get so excited when another Black woman goes, ‘I’m proud of you.’ Without expectation or anything, it feels good, but you can’t count on that. You be the Black woman to count on for yourself.”
For more of Ledisi’s interview with Madame Noire, click here.
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