"One Woman Army" is a song by American singer

Porcelain Black Alaina Marie Beaton (born October 1, 1985), known professionally as Porcelain Black, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, and model. At age 16, she embarked on her music career as a solo act under the name Porcelain and the Tramps with Vir ...

. The song was set to appear on her debut album ''Mannequin Factory'', though the album has since been cancelled. It was produced by the artist's long-time collaborator

RedOne Nadir Khayat ( ar, نادر الخياط; born 9 April 1972), better known by his stage name RedOne, is a Moroccan singer, songwriter, record producer and record executive. As a record producer and songwriter, he has worked with many high-profi ...

. "One Woman Army" was released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

on the

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on March 5, 2014, in France. An EP containing three remixes of "One Woman Army" was released on through iTunes on April 8, 2014. "One Woman Army" peaked at 14 on the French Singles Chart, and topped the country's iTunes chart. The song also reached the top 40 in Belgium and Spain. Critics praised the song. The song was featured as

Popjustice Popjustice is a music website founded in 2000 by UK freelance music journalist Peter Robinson, who has worked for ''NME'', ''The Guardian'', ''Attitude'' and many others. It is composed of the work of editor Robinson, features editor Michael Cra ...

's "Big Song" and "Song of the Week". After the song's success in France, Porcelain Black performed it on the popular radio station

NRJ NRJ (NRJ is an acronym read as Nouvelle Radio Jeune, or ''énergie'' in French, pronounced , literally "energy") is a private French radio station created by Jean-Paul Baudecroux and Max Guazzini in June 1981, and was widely popularized than ...

as well as the

Fête de la Musique The Fête de la Musique, also known in English as Music Day, Make Music Day or World Music Day, is an annual music celebration that takes place on 21 June. On Music Day, citizens and residents are urged to play music outside in their neighborho ...

on the French channel

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 ...

in June 2014.

Background and release

"One Woman Army" was released on her official

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channel on March 5, 2014. An EP containing three remixes of "One Woman Army" was released through iTunes on April 8, 2014. During the summer of 2013, Porcelain Black performed a private gig in West Hollywood, featuring all new material. Of the songs performed, "Rich Boi" and "Mama Forgive Me" received critical commentary. Several months later, 2101 Records released five songs in five weeks, following 8 August 2013. "Mama Forgive Me" was the first released. Her long anticipated debut album is expected to be released after the five-week promotional period, with two brand new singles preceding it. After "Mama Forgive Me", Porcelain performed three new songs, whose titles were: "How Do You Love Someone", "Pretty Little Psycho", "Rich Boi", and "One Woman Army" respectively.

hosted the songs "Rich Boi" and "One Woman Army" as their weekly Big Songs.

Composition

In the

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

of "One Woman Army", Porcelain Black sings: "I'm on the battlefield like oh my god / knocking soldiers down like house of cards", followed by an "oh la la" ear worm. Typical for mainstream music released in the past decade, the song follows a verse-chorus formula.

Critical reception

Overall, "One Woman Army" received positive reviews from music journalists. Calling the chorus "powerful", French critics compared the song to works produced by

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accent ...

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

, and

Natalia Kills Natalia Noemi "Teddy" Sinclair (née Cappuccini; born 15 August 1986), is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She has recorded music under various aliases, most famously as Natalia Kills and Verbalicious. She is currently the lead vocali ...

. In another review,

writer Peter Robinson commented on Porcelain Black's performance of "One Woman Army" at a private Hollywood show. Robinson called the song "completely ridiculous and we love it." Blogging "What a chorus!", he called attention to the

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...

, saying "...haven't we all at some point in our lives been on a battlefield like 'oh my God'?"

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called the song "thunderous" and "radio-friendly". Music-reporting website

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called the song "surprisingly great".

Chart performance

Porcelain Black, in June 2014, made sales in France, reaching number 3 on the

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chart, before crowning the chart at number 1,. On the

French Singles Chart French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...

, "One Woman Army" peaked at number 14, peaking at number 42 on the

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

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. In Spain, the song reached 24 on the

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

charts.

Music video

Following the song's release, Black released a lyric video on March 12, 2014. Two music videos were filmed for the song, the first one being directed by Roberto de Angelis and shot in

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...

and the second one being directed by

Hype Williams Harold Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens, New York. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adel ...

, but neither of them were released.

Live performances

"One Woman Army" was performed at French

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

on 4 June 2014. She also performed the song on the

on the French channel

on 21 June 2014. Sporting an all-black costume and flanked by

backup dancer A backup dancer also known as background dancer is a performer who dances with or behind the lead performers in a live musical act or in a music video. Their movements (especially where there are many moving together) improve the visual aesthetic ...

s, the performance was said by ''

'' to "impress".

Track listings

*Original release: # "One Woman Army" - 3:36 *One Woman Army Remixes EP: # "One Woman Army" (Alvita Remix) - 5:06 # "One Woman Army" (Deparis Remix) - 4:12 # "One Woman Army" (Rush Remix) - 4:19

Charts

Release date

References

{{Authority control 2014 singles 2014 songs 2101 Records singles Song recordings produced by RedOne Songs written by RedOne Songs written by Bilal Hajji Porcelain Black songs Universal Republic Records singles Songs written by Giorgio Tuinfort