Ciara is making a statement as she celebrates Black excellence in her new music video for her latest single “Rooted,” featuring Ester Dean. The singer dropped the powerful visual on Wednesday, which also shows her pregnant and dancing with her baby bump on full display.
Ciara gave birth to her third child (second with husband Russell Wilson), Winn Harrison, two weeks ago, but the music video was made just days before the bundle of joy’s arrival.
Paying tribute to motherhood and Black culture, the singer highlights a number of people showing off their talents, as well as families and protestors. A woman wearing a Breonna Taylor shirt can also be seen in the visual.
Additionally, aside from Ciara and her bare baby bump busting their best dance moves, her two children — Future, 6, and Sienna, 3 — also make an adorable cameo.
The video ends with the message, “To all my young Rosa’s and Young Luther’s keep marching. Don’t stop fighting for what you believe in. To all my Black queens and kings, continue to plant and spread seeds of love, hope and pride in your tribe. Everything you need to survive and thrive is rooted in you. Stay rooted.”
Proceeds from the song will go to support Grantmakers for Girls of Color, a leading philanthropic organization dedicated to cultivating investments in support of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and Pacific American girls in the United States. Watch the video below.
360aproko spoke with Ciara earlier this week, where she opened up about the meaning and inspiration for the song.
“I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to express myself during this time. It’s a very crucial time within the world, within the Black community, and for me, as an artist with a platform, I’m like, ‘How can I find my voice in this?'” Ciara said, of how the song and video came to be. “So when my friend Ester Dean played me this song, I thought, ‘This is one of those perfect pieces to my puzzle of how I’m gonna express myself, and I want to express myself.’ I’ve always said music is one of the most powerful forces on Earth, and it’s a blessing to be able to do it.”
“For me, this song allowed me to celebrate the Black joy. It allowed me also to celebrate our uniqueness, our strength, everything that we need to survive and thrive is rooted in us,” she continued. “You’re never limited by your gender or the color of your skin. That’s how I live my life, and so it’s important to me to continue to express that. And to continue to encourage not just my fans, but particularly our community, the Black community [to do the same].”
