Months following the success of “Last Last” en route to the release of Love, Damini, Burna Boy has enlisted the assistance of UK singer Ed Sheeran for “For My Hand”. It’s not the first time the singers have shared a song, having first come together thanks to Stormzy’s 2019 hit “Own It”. And the companionship showed as the Grammy winners complemented each other over the slow-tempo ballad. Their vocal performance over P2J production is a masterful and symmetrical dance, almost like watching the chemistry between old pals as they share a good laugh or complete each other’s sentences.
Burna Boy sets the tone and unzips his soul over thin symphonic harmonies, which accent his sincere professions: “Whenever I’m broken, you make me feel whole / whenever I’m lonely, you’re there for my soul / wherever you are, girl, that’s where I call my home”. And with the mood of love hanging in the air, Ed seasons it with his own soul-bearing lyrics: “I wanna be in your life until the night is over / I wanna hold you so tight, so tight coming closer / It’s been a helluva ride of every single moment / you were there by my side”. The guest completes the mood of longing and a pining love and brings the song to maturity with his vulnerability: “Over and over again, yeah my love is burning, babe / feel like time is frozen and the night is for us”.
The singers leave enough room for each other to mirror one another’s emotions and motions without coming off as repetitive in the brief two-minutes-and-thirty-nine seconds. They fashion a time bubble, where nothing exists in it but the love and the confessions for the mystery lady they both have emptied their hearts for. The “Hold you for my hand, my hand, my hand / hold you for my hand, hold you for my hand” is an incantatory mantra, strengthening the fire that keeps their love burning warm. It’s almost as if the duet is personal, written with nobody else in mind but you, the listener.
The soulful song’s denouement sees the singers land the song with the synchronous performance of Burna’s opening lines (“I wanna be in your life until the night is over…”). The song comes around full circle as they rehash the theme of everlasting love by reaffirming the same thing in the end as in the beginning.
“For My Hand” is the accomplished work of two distinct singers who have mastered their musical capabilities. Burna Boy stayed true and not for a moment watered down his African flavour; Ed channelled the same energy he came with on Fireboy DML’s “Peru”, injecting the classic sincerity he is loved for. Coming from two polar opposite worlds and continents, “For My Hand” is a pure and poetic paragon of what a cross-dimensional collabo should sound like in song form.
Check out the music video here:
