Music News

After channeling her inner rage and nu-metal bona fides on the 2022 album , Willow is going in the opposite direction on her just-released meditative new single, “Symptom of Life.”

In an Instagram post announcing the song’s release on Tuesday (March 12), the 23-year-old daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith described the video for the song as something “for all the beautiful people who have ever gone into nature with their friends & been guided to a deeper understanding of life together by plant medicine ?? I hope this song and visual can bring catharsis to anyone who experiences them.”

The nature-forward visual — which Smith directed — begins with Smith and two friends strolling in a forest, where the singer finds, and discards, a snail shell before laying on her back in the leaves to begin her Tori Amos-like musings about the mysteries of the universe. “Pushing and peeling myself out of my disguise/ Looking at you now I am wondering who am I/ If I could try to take you back/ I couldn’t define feeling/ Absence of time/ Knowing all is decided there’s nothing here left to find/ The story’s all in my mind/ Pushing and peeling the layers that cover my mind/ Looking into the shadow now I notice the light/ Magic is real when you see it inside,” Willow sings over a loungey backing track that trades the guitar-heavy sound of her previous effort for piano and jazzy drums.

By video’s end, Willow is smiling while laying on a patch of grass surrounded by a forest of colorful flowers. Earlier in the week she posted the lyrics, explaining to fans that she wanted to give them time to “deeply digest the words before diving into the whole composition.” At press time Willow had not revealed if “Symptom” is a one-off like her equally introspective, jazz-influenced November single “Alone,” or if the songs are destined for what would be her sixth full-length solo studio album.

Watch the “Symptom of Life” video below.

Former Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards is gearing up to release her debut solo LP. The singer announced the title of her first solo single, “Forget About Us,” on Tuesday (March 12). “‘Here’s the truth of it…’ Wow [crying eyes emoji] it’s happening! My first solo single ‘Forget About Us’ is coming,” the singer wrote.

While Edwards had not revealed any additional information about the LP at press time, Official Charts reported that she recently hosted a series of private listening parties for fans and industry pros in London where the singer previewed six new songs while telling the stories behind each. Though the song titles are being kept secret, the album’s first single was reportedly co-written by Ed Sheeran and was described as sounding like a “road trip with your besties, windows down, belting the chorus at the top of your voice” kind of track with a “Kelly Clarkson-meets-Katy Perry” vibe; Sheeran also reportedly co-wrote a second song on the album.

The album also reportedly features a collaboration with RAYE, who took home the album of the year award at the March 2nd BRIT Awards for her debut album, My 21st Century Blues. At press time a spokesperson for Edwards’ label had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the details of the album, whose release date has not yet been announced.

Edwards burst onto the music scene in 2011 when she, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and Jesy Nelson were put together on the British X Factor. The group released six albums before Nelson left the group in 2020 after the release of their final album, Confetti, with the remaining members going on hiatus in Dec. 2021; their final show, an April 2022 gig at the O2 Arena in London, was livestreamed.

Check out Edwards’ single announcement below.