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Writer's pictureNick Saward

Little Simz - Woman Analysis

Updated: Feb 13, 2022


Directed by Little Simz herself, her attitude on what it means to be a woman and the need to empower females around her is presented. This video is a hybrid as it includes elements of both a performance and narrative music video. The creative choices she makes as this is a self directed video really gets her ideas across of how she views woman and the power they hold according to her in a way that is respectful and truly inspiring.


The very first shot is a wide shot of the scene that the music video takes place in. The setting is of a simple but luxurious white mansion. This is a symbolic code as the house has a deeper meaning and is used to create effect as a lot of people recognise that mansions usually have connotations of importance as they are usually owned by people in power who have money, the use of the mansion as the setting subtly highlights her idea that woman are powerful people already. The use of the mansion sets the tone for the rest of the video as it reflects the elegant woman that will be featured later.


The next part of the video goes into a room in the mansion which is where little Simz and a group of women are sat around a very busy table with money, books and telephones which we can see through the use of a tracking shot following a waitress. The items on the table suggest these woman are businesswomen. Little Simz shows how it's not just men who can be in control like this and be in higher career positions so the representation of this is important to see and would make a female audience especially ones involved in a career like this feel empowered which is a recurring theme in this music video.

It comes back to this room multiple times and feels like it gives more narrative elements of a music video. There is a certain part of the video where the girl next to the artist stands up taking on a role of an important character and the other woman around her are really interested in what she has to say and applaud her, the use of this encourages the audience to see woman as inspiring. The video is just over 4 minutes long so she really had to think about how to create the video to be effective and by creating this scene it definitely portrays her ideologies of woman being powerful and gets them across.


Little Simz is located at the top of the table which draws attention to her, music videos conventionally include the artist or performer. This part of the video includes performance elements as there is a medium close up shot of her lip syncing which makes her the main focus and also gives the audience a chance to pay attention to what she is saying too. The camera then zooms out and the woman around the table start to dance which is another element of a performance music video making it seem like quite a conventional music video.

Another way of the attention being on the artist is through the choice of clothes. This is a binary opposition as the artist is in a glittery black and red dress with sparkly jewellery whilst the other characters are in block coloured suits, this makes little simz the main focus point but as the woman are all in suits it doesn't take away from them and possibly is used to reinforce the fact they are all equal.


There is another section of the music video which includes solo features of woman which are important to Little Simz, the casting is intentional as they all have personal significance to the artist. Some recognisable woman include Joy Crookes, Jourdan Dunn and Miraa May, other musical artists and also actresses and models. There is a lot of diversity in the music video and as Little Simz is a black woman herself which sometimes in the past has affected how she has been seen so by including other woman from ethnic minority backgrounds it would have made an impact on the audience who relates to that as she celebrates those from that backgrounds and there are some recognisable people in there which might excite the audience and feel empowered because of them.




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