Meet Ruby Amanfu, A Ghanaian Singer Featured On Beyoncé’s Song ‘Don’t Hurt Yourself’
Beyoncé’s Lemonade album has quite a number of African influences. Somali poet/writer Warsan Shire, Nigerian visual artist Laolu Senbanjo have all been recognized as part of the creative process of bringing the Queen Bee’s controversial album to life.
One girl who seems have been left out in the African buzz is Ghanaian born singer Ruby Amanfu. In a recent interview with Billboard the Nashville singer disclosed that…
”I sang all of the backing vocals on the song. I wanted to utilize more of an operatic vocal style, which I love to sing from time to time. In the verses, you’ll notice it’s sparse and staggered, like quick breaths — which I love, because to me it sounds almost like gasps processing every word of Beyonce’s lyrics. Then we layered my vocals at least eight times in the choruses and what not to create that fuller choral sound you hear in the other parts of the songs.”
On how she is handling her new Beyhive fame:
”I think that people are still discovering that it’s me singing on “Don’t Hurt Yourself.” If you haven’t read the credits, the truth is, you wouldn’t know.”
So what did the African girl who sang live onstage at the 2013 Grammy Awards alongside American musician/guitarist Jack White first think of Beyoncé’s visual album? Well she says….
”Jack reached out to me the weekend the HBO special came out to congratulate me. I had no idea what the HBO special would be about or contain, so of course I scurried to turn on HBO Go and load up the show. I was so mesmerized by the visuals and pure art of Lemonade that I didn’t even realize that I was about to hear my own voice! I was just so in awe of the whole aesthetic that it caught me by surprise. ”
Checkout her song ‘Streetlights’ and see if you would love her even more
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