Chadwick Boseman’s late wife, Simone Ledward, is releasing her music to the world. Under the stage name of sahn, her debut project “the mornings,” proves to be a window into her artistry.
Ledward Boseman has been writing songs since childhood, but her first entry into the music space is one she feels ready to share now. However, sahn is not Ledward Boseman’s alter ago, but a “version” of her being that she strives to uphold. She spoke to Vibe about what her music under this persona means to her.
“Elevated. She’s Simone, elevated, ” shared the musician. “Simone without the ego. I’m always striving to just respond in a space that is that higher version of yourself. She represents who I am when I am at my best. She’s always growing, always a point I can reach up to.”
The widowed artist is notoriously private, and has been since the beginning of her relationship with the deceased “Black Panther” actor. According to Blavity, the two became familiar at a James Brown tribute concert in 2014, as the actor played the famed singer in the biopic “Get On Up” released that same year. The couple were married in 2019, and were together up until his death due to colon cancer in August 2020.
The first track on the 9-song project references her late husband, titled “chad’s prayer.” However, while Ledward Boseman is not afraid to let her grief be part of her musical story, she does not want it to define her completely.
“Any artist’s work is about the experiences that they have had, but myself as an artist is not encapsulated in grief. I have more to say, and I have more to contribute to more conversations than solely about the grieving process and loss,” expressed the singer.
Her project, which was three years in the making, is filled with songs displaying a woman vulnerable and a woman healing, as Ledward Boseman is now able to “forge a path” that honors her beloved partner while establishing herself as a solo artist.
“I think that sahn is how I move forward, how I forge a path that is my own,” shared California Polytechnic State University alum. “This is how I now take the influence of someone else’s legacy because I don’t think that I am his legacy…Taking everything that I learned and how I was influenced by his legacy is how I’m able to move forward and to continue to carry his spirit with me in my own work.”
The accompanying visual for her first single “angelsxdemons” is available to watch now, with the rest of the compilation on streaming as well.