“And the same thing will go on with this new version and the next new version.” There are people who knew Houston’s version and didn’t know Khan’s. The song carries a message that we continually need to hear to uplift and empower ourselves, Reece said. “It was part of Houston’s evolution and power as an artist that goes beyond genres in impact.” The original was part of Khan breaking away from Rufus, and as “part of the soundtrack of The Bodyguard, that’s a whole ’nother breaking out,” she said. The 1978 debut of “I’m Every Woman” by Chaka Khan came in a post-civil rights movement, second-wave feminism moment marked by both unprecedented career possibilities and reproductive freedom. “Music gets to mean so much more within the cultural social context in which it’s presented and represented,” said Dwandalyn Reece, curator of music and performing arts and associate director for curatorial affairs at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. It is the second single off The Bodyguard, the bestselling soundtrack album in history and one of the high-water marks of Houston’s career. It’s punctuated by Houston’s shout-outs to “Chaka Khan!” who, along with the song’s co-writer Valerie Simpson, become part of the joyful tableau. The video features a pregnant Houston surrounded by exuberant dancers. 4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart (the original peaked at No. Whitney Houston’s 1992 version of “I’m Every Woman” added a club feel to the original and became an even bigger hit, peaking at No. “It’s something that’s much more celebratory which, I think, fits into a kind of celebratory moment of Blackness.” It adds to “this idea that Black women aren’t only this one singular thing,” Neal said. “There’s an element of the video telling Black women that you no longer have to wear that maid uniform.” Or that wife, that servant, that perpetually stoic, or careworn woman uniform. She wears different uniforms to remind people of her other sides, “at a time when Black people had to wear uniforms in order to function in public,” Neal said. “They could see themselves in a really multifaceted way, right? ‘I’m Every Woman’ gives Black women the license to think that way.” “In this video, Chaka’s like, ‘This is how I am during the day, this is how I am at night, this is how I am when I’m just chilling.’ And then I think it gave Black women license to not just reduce themselves to one particular role that either their male partner dictates, or their boss dictates, or the race dictates,” Neal said. It represented Khan’s break from the funk band Rufus, and coined a new cultural vocabulary that Black women instantly internalized. The net effect cemented the singer’s reputation as accessibly beautiful with volcanic pipes. In the music video, Khan sports five looks – playful, sexy, smartly dressed, dressed up and around-the-way sistergirl destined to be your favorite auntie. Tinashe on her cover of “I’m Every Woman”: “I try to give it my signature breath, vocal moments as well as giving like my best, like ’70s, diva energy.” The song was “such a testament to the wide variety of what a Black woman was and could be,” said Mark Anthony Neal, chair of the department of African and African American studies at Duke University. For Black women, it was an existentially different world from that of their mothers and grandmothers who came before them. The 1978 debut of “I’m Every Woman” came in a post-civil rights movement, second-wave feminism moment marked by both unprecedented career possibilities and reproductive freedom. And with it, she became the latest artist to customize an R&B anthem first made famous by Chaka Khan more than four decades ago that keeps traveling the culture and expanding in meaning. 2, which is part of an ongoing project between The Undefeated and Hollywood Records. So she leaned into a song that felt energetic and free on the newly released EP, Black History Always – Music For the Movement Vol. “I’ve been dealing with a lot of emotional heaviness, and we’ve all been going through a lot.” “Last year, there was just a lot of heaviness in the world,” said the 28-year-old Grammy-nominated songwriter and artist whose full name is Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe. She decided to bring a deep house vibe to a new rendition of the R&B classic “I’m Every Woman,” a song with a message for the ages, reinterpreted for the moment. About being a Black woman, which everybody knows contains multitudes. Something smooth and sweet, with power vocals that celebrate everything special about being a woman. With the world down bad and people closed in, R&B singer Tinashe wanted to show up artistically and give voice to the times.
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