Pinky Explains Why Some Songs Fail Despite Good Songwriting

Ugandan singer Nanyanzi Rahmah, popularly known as Pinky, has opened up about the often misunderstood art of songwriting and why some musicians fail to fully connect with songs written for them.

Speaking during a chat with YouTuber MC Richie, Pinky explained that owning a song goes far beyond memorizing lyrics or copying a demo provided by a songwriter.

According to her, the magic comes when an artiste truly connects emotionally with the song.

When they give me a song, I sit into it. I feel the song. If someone writes, “I am never okay when you are not okay,” for them they have just put it there as a phrase. Now you have to sing to the people like you really feel bad when that person is not okay… They give you a demo of them singing the song, but you are not supposed to sound like the demo. You are just supposed to memorize the words, put yourself in the situation the song is about, and feel the song. If you do all that, then you can give it a very good feeling or a different feeling.

Pinky explained that some songs fall short, even when written by skilled songwriters, because artistes fail to fully own them.

Those are the situations where a musician releases a song and you find that the demo sounds better than the actual song. Or they release a song and it sounds exactly like the demo. Or they sound like the person who wrote the song for them. This is all because they do not take time to own the song. You have to listen to the song and own it.

She ended by reminding artistes that listening to and owning a song makes all the difference.