Comparing Mvula's Phenomenal Woman And Janelle Monae

American society has always placed the weight of boundaries on to women, more specifically black women. Black women have had to deal with the standards of the Eurocentric life and the fact that to them we are not able to live up to what they expect from an “average” woman. Black women have always been the “runt of the bunch”. They are disliked and criticized for their hair, body shape, pigment of their skin color and many more things that they cannot control. Being in a society that is so bent on discouraging them from embracing who they are, it is hard to lift themselves back up after being put down by everyone around them. Feel good music makes the woman view herself differently. Between Laura Mvula’s “Phenomenal Woman” and Janelle Monae’s “Q.U.E.E.N”, they show the black woman to embrace who she is through eye catching visuals and deep lyrics. Although they both are uplifting women and encouraging them to be themselves, they differentiate through style of sound and style of visuals.

Through vibrant colors and colors that weren’t as vibrant, deep lyrics that spoke to the audience, and castings of women who aren’t considered to be as beautiful as society wants them to be; they achieved a deeper meaning to the music than just a song being thrown together. They both showed what it meant to truly be confident in themselves and carefree regardless of what others may think. They tried to educate women to stay true to themselves and not change for anyone. Although they were basically saying the same thing, their different aspects of choice of outfits and visuals separated them as two different types of artists. Both artists tried to put out a feel good song to empower women which they both phenomenally achieved. Even though they are meant to say kind of the same thing, their way of expressing their sayings and showcasing it differentiates Mvula and Monae from each