"Nina Cried Power" is a song recorded by Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, featuring vocals from American

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

and gospel singer

Mavis Staples Mavis Staples (born July 10, 1939) is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress, and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family's band The Staple Singers (she is the last surviving member of that band). Durin ...

. It was released on 6 September 2018 as the lead single from Hozier's second studio album ''

Wasteland, Baby! ''Wasteland, Baby!'' is the second studio album by Irish musician Hozier, released on 1 March 2019 by Rubyworks Records. It is Hozier's first album since 2014. The album includes the songs " Nina Cried Power" and "Shrike" from the 2018 EP '' Nin ...

Writing and composition

"Nina Cried Power" is the first track on the album, written by Hozier alone. The song is described as a "soulful anthem" and contains

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

influences, with subtle piano, a playful drumbeat, and soothing guitar rhythm. The lyrics namecheck the artist-activists of previous generations, including

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

Curtis Mayfield Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music.

BB King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimm ...

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

Patti LaBelle Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer, actress and businesswoman. LaBelle is referred to as the " Godmother of Soul". She began her career in the early 1960s as lead singe ...

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

, contributing vocalist

, and the titular

Nina Simone Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, ...

; the naming of the track is a nod to Simone's recording of Sinnerman, which features the lyric "I cried power." The song describes their work as the "hearing of a human spirit ringing." "Nina Cried Power" salutes their contributions to the protest music of the American

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

, declaring that "It's not the waking, it's the rising." After touring his debut album, Hozier took a one-year hiatus from his work, residing in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, to "re-connect". He stated that he became a "news junkie" and wrote much of the album's material "trying to reconcile" his own "concerns and anxieties" regarding humanity when the

Doomsday Clock The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe, in the opinion of the members of the ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists''. Maintained since 1947, the clock is a metaphor for threats to humanity ...

moved to two minutes to midnight in 2018. Staples influenced the record's musical conception; "Nina Cried Power" was originally written on the piano while Hozier strived to make "music that hit a little bit harder, that leaned in to rhythm a little bit more". Hozier has stated that his musical education was "grounded" in

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

artists like Nina Simone and many of the artists receiving nods in the song have frequently been cited as his influences; he has previously stressed the importance of "crediting the legacy you're crediting".

Critical response

"Nina Cried Power" was lauded by critics. ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' stated that he upheld the legacies of the aforementioned artists with "purposeful swagger" while ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' wrote that "from the first track, Hozier fuses his righteous political anger (“It is the bringing of the line, it is the baring of the rhyme, it’s not the waking it’s the rising”) with what you can only call a “tune”, citing it as "a tree-flattening tour de force that explores broad themes of protest and liberation." ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' stated that "Hozier...uses the performer's legacy to inspire action and disrupt apathy. This is the poignant reminder that the work these artist-activists set in motion still needs redressing and enacting ... as an opener, "Nina Cries Power" is an inspirational triumph concertizing the single's place in the history of protest music." ''

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

'' praised the opening track for its "upbeat, joyous quality, testifying to the emotional material to come."

Commercial performance

The song peaked at number ten on the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...

, scoring Top 50 positions in the US, the Netherlands, Scotland, New Zealand, and Belgium.

Music video

The official music video for "Nina Cried Power" was released on 12 September 2018. It was directed by Patrick Ryan and Jon Hozier-Byrne, Hozier's brother, and features a slew of Irish activists, including

Sinéad Burke Sinéad Burke (born 1990) is an Irish writer, academic and disability activist, popular for her TED talk 'Why design should include everyone'. She is the Director of consulting organisatio'Tilting the Lens' working to raise the baseline standard ...

Eamonn McCann Eamonn McCann (born 10 March 1943) is an Irish politician, journalist, political activist, and former councillor from Derry, Northern Ireland. McCann was a People Before Profit (PBP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Foyle from 2016 ...

, and

Bernadette McAliskey Josephine Bernadette McAliskey (née Devlin; born 23 April 1947), usually known as Bernadette Devlin or Bernadette McAliskey, is an Irish civil rights leader, and former politician. She served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Ulster in North ...

. The video was filmed in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, and features the activists wearing headphones while wordlessly reacting to the powerful anthem for the first time. The video has amassed over 11 million views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Charts

References

{{Hozier 2018 songs 2018 singles Hozier (musician) songs Songs written by Hozier (musician) Songs about musicians Songs about activists List songs Nina Simone