Music sensation and global icon Rihanna made her highly- anticipated return to the airwaves today with Lift Me Up, the lead single from the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever original soundtrack.
The track has been co-written by Rihanna, director Ryan Coogler and Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems. It is produced and also co-written by Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, who scored the first Black Panther film (2018), which won him the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
Life Me Up is a tribute to the extraordinary life and legacy of late actor Chadwick Boseman, who played the titular character in the 2018 superhero film.
Boseman was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016. The 21 Bridges (2019) and Da 5 Bloods (2020) actor died due to complications related to colon cancer on August 28, 2020, in Los Angeles.
Ryan, at a press conference for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, said that it was Chadwick that drew Rihanna to make a comeback to music after six years. “Honestly, I think it was Chad. A lot of improbable things needed to happen for it to come through and Rihanna was very clear that she did that for him,” he shared.
He further pointed out that he wouldn’t take the sole credit for convincing Rihanna to be a part of the soundtrack and that there were other ‘major factors’ like Ludwig, Roc Nation – a Manhattan-based entertainment agency – and rapper Jay Z.
Ryan added, “The truth is we were looking for a great artiste who could tell the story of the film and embrace the themes of the film and present them to the audience in a different packaging. This film is different. It made sense that it would be a woman. It made sense that it could be someone who could speak to, not necessarily the words, but the feeling of motherhood, because that’s a major, major theme in this film. And I think it timed up that she was in that kind of space in her life.”
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The Creed (2015) maker also said it was the trailer of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever that did the trick. “I think that when she saw the performances that everybody was putting down in the trailer, that was what kind of put her over the edge and say, ‘Hey, I wanna see this film. I wanna see if I can figure this out,’” he stated.
Sharing his excitement about having Rihanna on board, Ryan remarked, “I love her music so much. I feel like she’s given all that somebody, all that you could ask for.”
The original score of Black Panther: Wakanda will be available on November 11 from Hollywood Records. The Marvel Studios production stars Angela Bassett, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Danai Gurira and Lupita Nyong’o, and Martin Freeman, among others. It is produced by Kevin Feige and Nate Moore and is set to open in theatres on November 11 in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.
