PREMIERE: NGAIO - Goddess (Official Video)
Acclaimed vocalist, DJ, and activist NGAIO continues on her formidable journey with the release of her compelling new single Goddess, out 6th June 2024. This is the final single to be released from her highly-anticipated, self-produced debut EP Four Quarters, due for release on the same date.
Speaking on the single, NGAIO say’s: The vision behind Goddess was to communicate the journey of self-acceptance that comes with connecting with the self and nature. We open with me looking over images of myself topless that was part of a campaign called CENSORED highlighting the unnecessary sexualisation of women's nipples. Meeting my billboard in the first scenes was a poignant moment for me personally, and the video follows my own journey of self-acceptance that's come through connecting with myself and nature to find my inner Goddess. The video ends on a water scene, which is a nod to Ibeyi's River - whose music has been a huge inspiration to the song and Four Quarters EP.
Goddess is a beautifully empowering piano-led ballad about spiritual connections and needing to have space to connect with our ancestors. NGAIO elaborates, “Goddess is about understanding that we are connected to more than the physical space of here and now. It's about knowing that we can find that connection in nature and ourselves”. Goddess is also a celebration of women. “Society is always trying to censor us as women and control a narrative around our bodies. How we look, what rights we have, who we should be”, NGAIO continues, “Goddess is about saying we're all Goddesses - no matter what anybody tells us. We don't need to starve ourselves. We don't need to have the same face and body. We don't need to be ashamed of our uniqueness - it's what makes us individuals. And if you ever forget that, it’s important to go to the places that will help you remember - which is what the song is for”.
Throughout the EP, NGAIO combines West African percussion and Bristol’s trip-hop influences with jazz, dub and soulful lyricism in order to create a sound that is truly innovative. A deeply personal and introspective journey, it reflects NGAIO’s exploration of identity, cultural heritage, and the challenges of expressing oneself authentically in a world often resistant to alternative perspectives. NGAIO is a genre-fluid shapeshifter, effortlessly blending sounds and shattering expectations.
As well as performing solo, NGAIO founded Booty Bass as a space for women and non-binary folk to come together and play big, bad, unapologetic bangers. Since its conception in 2018 it’s become a space that promotes an appreciation of different cultures and sounds worldwide where dancing and laughing is key. In 2022, NGAIO launched Obsidian in collaboration with Shade Cartel - a micro venue that launched at Boomtown and took over Glastonbury and We Out Here festival in 2023. As a curator, she also produced a Booty Bass Takeover at St Pauls's Carnival with the first female/non-binary run Soundsystem and takeovers at Shambala festival. She also produces and hosts her monthly radio show on Soho Radio broadcast in London and New York.
In 2023, NGAIO played milestone gigs such as; hosting and playing her first Boiler Room in Bristol, Keep Hush as part of the Booty Bass Takeover and supporting D Double E, Lowkey, and Bugzy Malone at the WikiLeaks event organised by Shangri-La. At last year's Glastonbury festival, she performed tracks from her new EP on the Greenpeace stage.
NGAIO was also recently a part of the Censored campaign highlighting female nipples being sexualised which was part of a city-wide exhibition addressing the hypocrisy of it and the consistent policing of women’s bodies.