Manny King John
Every week on ‘Level Up Radio’ with Ciara on Apple Music Hits, Ciara celebrates the definitive songs and sounds of modern R&B and shares stories of her experience as an entrepreneur, mother, philanthropist, and unstoppable entertainment force.
Ciara on Alicia Keys and her song ‘Girl on Fire’
This girl is on fire, literally. Everything she does is just special. She knows how to inspire the world. She knows how to empower us ladies and this girl right here, Alicia Keys, is very special. It’s been really fun to watch her journey over the years and just to see how she continues to blossom as a mom, as a friend. She’s just an awesome lady and I have a fun way that I kind of remix her songs with my babies. One day I’ll share with you guys how I do that, but shout out to all my girls right now. I want you to know that you are on fire and you are special.
Ciara on her song, ‘One Woman Army’, and why she thinks independence is the best trait to have as a woman
This song right here was a really, really fun record. Everything about female empowerment was so important to me and on this song I wanted for you to be able to jam out to it but also feel something while you were jamming out to it. And it’s always fun when you make these kinds of songs like this where you get to not only groove and dance around, but also feel something and feel inspired and feel empowered. And the idea of this is how we can get it done as a one woman army, but also I talk about not only independence, but at that point I was saying, ‘If someone’s going to be in my life, I want them to be also strong as well.’ And I believe there’s something really important about that.
Being independent is probably the best trait you could have as a woman, but I also believe that when you’re looking for your partner, you want someone that’s going to compliment you. And I think it’s cool to, yes, be independent, but it’s also great to have help too. So that was a little bit my inspiration with this record as well.
Ciara on the ‘Level Up Radio’ ethos, female empowerment and her song ‘I Love Myself (featuring Macklemore)’
Nope. I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to look at the clock. Maybe if I lock the doors, we can just keep on going, because I really want to keep on going. But I got to say, it’s been so much fun jamming out on this show, and it’s been really cool to celebrate all the amazing, inspiring women out there. It’s a very special thing, and that’s what ‘Level Up Radio’ is about for me, as I said to you before. I want to inspire. I want to empower.
I want you to feel motivated when you listen to this show. Particularly on this show, we focus on the power of us ladies, and there’s nothing better than when you’re able to share your thoughts through song. There’s nothing better than when you’re able to use your life lessons and pour it into music and make something special that inspires someone else or helps someone else going through a tough time. I hope that playlist for you today was everything you needed and everything you wanted, everything you felt and more. That was my goal. I know for me it was all that and more. That being said, I’m going to close out with last record right here, a very special song to me that I actually recorded on my last album, ‘Beauty Marks’, under my own label imprint, Beauty Marks Entertainment.
This song right here was important to me, because I talked about the ways of level up or the level up-isms, I call it. There was 10 ways I put out to level up, and loving yourself was one of those ways. I really believe in the power of self-love. Shout out to my boy Macklemore for joining me on the song as well. He’s just incredible, and I thought it was cool to have a guy’s perspective on this record, talking about the power of loving yourself from his perspective as a male, but also a dad of two girls. I thought it would be really cool to hear how he saw the power of telling his daughter to love herself.
