Yuna and Little Simz collaborate in the new song, “Pink Youth” with an animated video that portrays good against evil. The two women fight alongside a man and maneuver through the city at night, targeted by malicious forces determined to take them down. They fight in superhero garb and dart through the air and on foot with ease against a back and white backdrop. The video begins with a lightning crackle before Yuna breaks in with her soothing voice and Little Simz flows through with a rap ballad mid-song. The two weave their girl powers, and lyrics, “They don’t know what it means to be a girl. To live in a dangerous world.”
Yuna shares, “When I was writing ‘Pink Youth’, I wanted to celebrate being a girl. When I was younger, I remember a lot of people didn’t believe in me just because I was girl trying to do something amazing… this song is for all the girls out there, who never got the encouragement & support they deserve.”
The animated video was conceptualized by Yuna and Adam Sinclair, written, directed and edited by Esteban Valdez, with executive producers Carl Jones and Brian Ash (The Boondocks, Black Dynamite). The video depicts Yuna and Little Simz saving the world from the powers-at-be trying to capture all color and hope from the world.
Yuna’s new album Rouge is out July 12 via Verve Forcast. She will be embarking on a U.S. tour in support of the new album. Born in Kedah, Malaysia and raised primarily in Kuala Lumpur, she splits her time between Malaysia and Los Angeles, where she recorded Rouge. “I’m a Muslim singer-songwriter, but I never saw myself as that,” she explains. Yuna describes her new album, noting that “the whole album is about how I am with myself: I’m comfortable with my relationship, with my focus on my career. It’s the color of becoming this woman I am.”
The artist began writing songs and teaching herself to play guitar at age 14. Her initial exposure came through the viral success of her music uploaded to Myspace, which received over one million plays. She collaborated with Usher on her breakout single, “Crush”, which peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard Adult R&B chart. In May 2017, Yuna became the first Malaysian singer to be nominated for a BET Award and received a nomination for the BET Centric Award for “Crush”, her duet single with Usher.
Little Simz has been on tour in the United States, with shows scheduled in Boston, Atlanta and Brooklyn. The tour is in support of her GREY Area album, a project that was acclaimed by both critics and fans. Over the past few years Little Simz has become one of hip-hop’s rising stars, taking over the UK music scene. Little Simz, whose real name is Simbi Ajikawo, has won praise from a variety of world renowned performers and made a name for herself with her recent projects.