Willow Smith Has Shared a Powerful New Ballad, ‘Split’

Willow Smith has released a brand-new track, ‘Split’, the latest preview from her upcoming record, ‘’. The track is a strong, introspective ballad that highlights a broken romance.

“We never talk a lot / I need to see you ’cause you’re on my mind / And say, ‘I never wanted / I never wanted this for us,'” she sings, as the songs rises to a bellowing crescendo.

“I couldn’t wait until the end of the week to let you hear this one…Split OUT NOW!” WILLOW wrote on Twitter, before adding: “My new album IS DROPPING THIS FRIDAY!”

Watch the video below while listening to 'Split'.

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the new release, WILLOW said: “I feel like there were so many songs on the album that were just so high octane, hardcore just intense, and I really felt like there needed to be some purely emotional just ballads on there, honestly.”

“Just giving some emotional rock ballads. And there were moments where I was like, ‘Oh no, I want to keep this crazy energy,’ but it needed the variety, it needed the balance. But it is definitely a softer take on the sound of the album.”

Some of the conceptual ideas for the record go back several years, the singer revealed when discussing the creative process behind '' with NME.

“I was always looking back at some old notes in my phone, and I had a folder and it was called ‘Coping Mechanism’,” she explained, adding that she had started it back in 2018. “This idea has been with me for a long time.”

She also said that on this record, she dives more into themes that she might have avoided in the past. “I hate to say it, because when I made music when I was younger, I really wanted to stay away from the idea of heartbreak and romantic love,” she explained.

“I felt like it was so played out. I just felt like everyone talks about that, and it’s just boring. But then your girl got her heart broken. And you know what, I said, ‘Maybe this is the time for me to make that album’. This is that album.”

The producer, Chris Greatti, according to the singer, has helped her further explore her passion of metal music on this album.

“Greatti plays the guitar like a freaking titan,” WILLOW explained. “He just plays like he’s in the music. I feel like the music he likes to play the most is metal, and so that’s his forte. We just worked really well together. I wanted to do that and he was like, ‘Oh, I know how to do this – which direction should we take it?’”

Though she did mention that metal was “not my forte”, she added: “I can play some metal riffs, I can. But it’s not the thing that I do the best. I wish it was, and soon it might be.”

In the BBC Live Lounge last week, WILLOW performed Yungblud's ‘The Funeral.’

---Silviya.Y