A Singer with a Poet’s Heart: A Look Into the Artistic Anatomy of R&B Songstress Amancia
From the never-ending depths of the wells of poetry come waters of healing, beauty, creation, and R&B singer-songwriter Amancia. A child of the spoken word, the songbird now lives her life a singer; however, she continues writing songs without abandoning her roots. With her debut album due for release early next year and her lead single, “Breathing In Water”, available for consumption, Amancia is gradually deepening her niche in the R&B industry.
Before the music, the songstress recalls how the calling found her at a young age.
“I could say that music chose me. I’ve been singing since I was three years old. I remember vividly my mother telling me that every time we had a family gathering or a braai, I would be the entertainer. I would dance and sing for them, and, on top of that, my parents played a lot of music in the house when I was growing up. By chance, I would mimic what was playing on radio or whatever was on at the time. That’s how I discovered I could sing, and I carried that throughout my upbringing.
“And in my teen years, I would listen to other people’s music, and I would sing to that. That’s when I discovered writing as a form of dealing with my own personal inner issues. So I started doing poetry, and that was when I was thirteen – when I also had my first crush. The older I got, I became more mature, and my writing got better, and that’s how I could say I got married to the music and becoming a professional,” she says.
Amancia | SUPPLIED
Being a poetess at heart, the singer’s approach is to import heart and soul from the realm of poetry, transforming it into pithy songwriting and honesty wrapped and embellished in melodies, harmonies, and stripped-down lyricism which focus more on getting the point across rather than being fussed about detail. Speaking about her latest single, “Breathing In Water” as well as her forthcoming song “Bondage”, Amancia says that her greatest hurdle, as a musician, is in the conflict between the verbose poet in her wanting to have her way and the musician she is, who seeks to compress all that needs to be expressed in concise verses and choruses.
“The challenge I face often is that I write too much. So, having to strip down my writings for the sake of putting them into song form is always bittersweet to me since I have so much I wanted to say. But when it came to “Breathing in Water”, it was so free flowing because I wrote it when I was in studio recording a completely different session with a DJ and an artist, and that artist was a man. I began to wonder what would happen if I wrote a song between a male and a female have it be conversational. As if they were courting each other,” she said.
Listen to “Breathing In Water”:
With “Breathing In Water” already out now on all digital streaming platforms, Amancia has her eyes set on dropping visuals at the cusp of October, before releasing her second single, titled “Bondage”, in January 2025. The pair of singles foreshadow the imminent drop of her debut album, which she estimates will be available to be feasted on in March 2025.
Inspired by era-defining artists such as Beyonce, Bob Marley and Michael Jackson, whose successes have been marked by their unapologetic artistry, Amancia views her music not only as a journey of living out her truth but helping others through her songs to do the same in their respective paths.
“As an R&B and soul singer, the impact I hope to leave with my music is that we stay true to ourselves. In my writing, I am always vulnerable and sincere, and in that approach, I hope to be relatable to people. For me, the purpose of doing this was to always share my pain, my joy, or my confusion with that one person. Just to let them know that they are not alone and that we are going through the human experience together. To let them know that it’s okay to talk and sing and cry about them. Even from the get-go when I started this project back in April, it was always about that and giving myself away for the people I’m singing for. It’s okay to just be you and share what God has given you and what you have to give the world. Sometimes it comes as a song or a piece of art or a dance or a poem. As long as you are okay with sharing that,” she says.
Amancia | SUPPLIED
Over the years, the R&B and soul spaces have undergone changes, renovations that could very well be chalked up to the growing influences of other genres as well as the emergence of novel sounds. Amancia says that while she recognises the changes, from the production to the essence of the songwriting, she’s aware that the shifts are necessary and that the genre is moving in a positive direction. The poet-turned-musician details the differences between the different eras of R&B, and how she fits into the timeline.
“Back in the day, R&B was food for the soul. R&B songs from the 90s and the early 2000s always took you to a place of extreme joy and bliss or pain, regardless of whether or not you’ve experienced such. The singers were very vulnerable with their pain, and there was also a lot of accountability among the artists when they messed up. In this day and age, we still have some of that, but there has been a shift because, naturally, things change. Songs are no longer five and six minutes long anymore, and people don’t explain how it started and how it ended. So there’s definitely a change in a sense that R&B music now gets straight to the point.
“I see that evolution even in myself. A song could be ten minutes in my head, but I will try my best to strip it down and make it three minutes because I want to get the most important facts recorded and tell the story in the most beautiful way within those three minutes. So there is definitely an evolution. The writers back in the day were more open and vulnerable, and the music was mostly about pain and love. Songwriters of the modern age are more reserved, and they don’t say too much but music is more about healing rather than just pain and love,” she says.
Albeit a darling of R&B and soul, Amancia remains open to other genres and experimenting with new sounds as well as pushing frontiers in pursuit of poetic excellence. For now, she has her mind set on solidifying her place in the local R&B space, which she aims to do without forsaking her poetic heritage.