Queen’s Speech 4

Birmingham native Lady Leshurr (Melesha Katrina O’Garro) is a well-known grime, hip-hop and dancehall singer and producer. With her “Queen’s Speech” tracks going viral – in particular “Queen’s Speech 4”, Lady Leshurr is a musician whose music doesn’t focus on love or relationships (she came out as pansexual in September 2018), but rather on other aspects of life and the downfalls of mankind. She also has a Caribbean background due to her parents both being born in the Isle of St Kitts.

“Queen’s Speech 4” is from the “Queen’s Speech” album was released in 2015, and is a track that focuses on society’s obsession with social media and embedding it into every aspect of their life, as well as making references to viral social media posts and videos. The track opens with the line “I hold it down like a Snapchat”, getting straight into the main theme of the track. “Why you Snapchatting in the club for? Just dance, man”, is one of the most prominent and brutal lines in the song, telling listeners to put away their phones and stop documenting their lives on social media and just enjoy their lives. Lady Leshurr also makes religious references sich as “Take it off his rail Nazareth”, and “A couple of snakey friends just Adam and Eve’d us”, using the latter of those lyrics to describe some friends who have left her (“Adam and Eve” is cockney rhyming slang for “leave”). As mentioned earlier, she also alludes to big social media posts or stories in the year: “I’ll turn a man to a girl like Bruce Jenner”, making a remark about famous ex-Olympian Bruce Jenner deciding to come out as a transgender. The hook and bridge consists of Lady Leshurr telling her listeners to brush their teeth before they speak her name. The second verse focuses on Lady Leshurr calling out females who think they’re great because they’ve dolled up their appearance: “Dem gyal are clapped, encore/ Don’t think you’re buff cause you’re wearing contour/ Cause I’ll wipe your brows off/ I’ll snatch your wig and nails off”. The term “clapped” is British slang for the word “ugly”, and “gyal” is also slang for “girl”, as well as “buff” meaning “attractive”. Lady Leshurr threatens them that she can just take all their makeup off and they won’t be as attractive.

As of late 2018, the music video has over 50 million views, and Lady Leshurr considers the track to be what launched her into the grime and hip-hop spotlight, leading her to work with big artists such as Tinchy Stryder, D Double E, Rizzle Kicks and more. The song also was used in a Samsung advert in the United States which led to it becoming well known in areas other than the UK. The music video is extremely relaxed, featuring only Lady Leshurr singing to the camera down a long street in what is presumed to be London.

Release Date: 1st August 2015

Songwriter/s: Lady Leshurr

Album: Queen’s Speech EP (2015)

Label: Sony Music UK

Music Video Release Date: 1st August 2015

Music Video Director/s: Lady Leshurr, Wowa

Chart Rankings: N/A