Rihanna / Lift Me Up (From Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - Music From and Inspired By) - Single / 2022
Lift Me Up (From Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - Music From and Inspired By)
solemn, tender, mournful but consoling
A sparse, hymn-like lullaby written for the Black Panther sequel, this song functions as both a tribute and a plea for comfort in grief. Built from short, repeated commands rather than a developing story, it works more like a prayer or elegy than a conventional pop narrative.
grief and mourning need for comfort loss of a loved one spiritual yearning tribute/memorial
Who's speaking
The speaker addresses someone who has died or is departing, voicing vulnerability and a childlike need for protection; the address could be to a lost loved one, an ancestor, or a higher power, and by extension functions as a tribute to a late collaborator.
What happens
There isn't a plot so much as an emotional state sustained and intensified. The song opens with a set of basic needs stated almost like a chant, moves into images of being consumed by fire and water -- metaphors for grief's overwhelm -- and closes by dissolving the verses into a repeated, almost incantatory plea for love and light, suggesting the speaker is settling into acceptance rather than resolution.
How it's built
The song is built on a small set of recurring phrases that function as a refrain from the very first line, with verses that barely expand before folding back into the refrain. The final section strips away narrative entirely, reducing the song to call-and-response fragments and ad-libs, which mimics the way mourning circles back on itself rather than progressing linearly.
Section by section
Opening refrain
“keep me close”
The song begins with its core request before any context is given, establishing dependency and vulnerability as the emotional baseline rather than something earned through narrative buildup.
First verse
“burning in a hopeless dream”
The fire imagery suggests a consciousness trapped in suffering, perhaps nightmare or memory, with the plea for warmth paradoxically asking for comfort from the same element associated with pain.
Second verse
The shift to drowning imagery deepens the sense of being overtaken by sorrow, while the request for arms and strength reframes comfort as physical and protective rather than merely emotional.
Final buildup
“we need light, we need love”
The shift from singular to plural pronoun widens the address from a private plea to something communal, suggesting the song speaks for a collective mourning rather than one voice alone.
Outro/ad-libs
The dissolution into fragmented call-and-response vocals abandons lyrical development altogether, letting repetition and vocal texture carry the emotional weight -- an unusual choice for a pop single that signals the song is functioning more as ritual than storytelling.
Craft
- anaphora
- The repeated imperative openings create a litany-like insistence, mimicking how grief repeats the same needs over and over without resolution.
- elemental imagery
- Fire and water serve as metaphors for emotional extremity -- burning suggests being consumed or trapped, drowning suggests being overwhelmed and unable to surface.
- apostrophe
- The entire song addresses an absent or departed figure directly, which is the rhetorical hallmark of an elegy.
- minimalist diction
- The vocabulary stays deliberately simple and childlike, which strips away poetic ornamentation and foregrounds raw emotional need.
Reading it
The most persuasive reading treats this as a memorial song, written in the context of loss connected to the Black Panther franchise, where the lyrics function less as a specific narrative and more as an open vessel for grief -- simple enough to apply to any lost loved one. An alternative reading hears it as a lullaby or prayer addressed to a protective figure (a parent, ancestor, or deity) asking to be shielded from suffering, which doesn't require loss to have already occurred and could instead be anticipatory or devotional.
Context
This song was written for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a film shaped significantly by the death of actor Chadwick Boseman, whose absence the film addresses directly. The song appears widely understood as an emotional tribute within that context, written with input from several songwriters and producers associated with the Black Panther franchise's music team, though I don't have reliable detail on the specific writing or recording credits to state as fact.
Listen for
- the way the chorus phrases function as both demand and comfort, performed with restraint rather than belting
- the contrast between the warm, swelling production and the sparse, repetitive lyric content
- the shift from singular to plural pronouns near the end, widening the song's address
- how the final section abandons full lines for fragmented ad-libs, functioning almost as wordless mourning
- the use of elemental imagery (fire, water) to signal emotional overwhelm without literal explanation
About Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty is a Barbadian singer, songwriter, businesswoman, and actress. An influential figure in popular culture, she is known for her multifaceted career, artistic reinventions, and eclectic fashion style.
b. 1988 / United States
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