Vanessa Williams making a musical comeback wasn’t on our 2024 bingo card, but mama is coming back with a vengeance. The multi-hyphenate entertainer first let it be known that she was back on the block with her dance party-starting single “Legs (Keep Dancing).” And now that she’s got us on the dance floor, she aims to keep us there with her latest single “BOP!,” a collaboration with her daughter’s group LION BABE and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Trixie Mattel.
“BOP!” acts both as a song title and an apt description of the song itself. It’s a house groove consisting of piano, horns, a sick kick drum and hi-hats galore. It all gives Vanessa a chance to let loose and have a little fun, and she gives the people what they want.
“So follow mother to the door / I’ll meet you inside by the floor / That’s what I came here for / They told me the kids need a bop / I’ll bring the bop,” she sings on the chorus. “Dance / You already understand / Do it while you got this chance / To make sure the beat don’t stop / I’ll bring the bop.”
Her collaborators also get their bop on. Trixie acts as the mistress of ceremonies by providing a bit of sass throughout the track and LION BABE’s Jillian Hervey shows her mama some love with a rap on the song’s second verse.
The song’s video, directed by Vanessa and Jillian, takes us to London. There, the ladies chew up scenery while dancing it up in a ballroom that they turned into a dance studio. And then they decide to hop in their ride and bring their “BOP!” to the masses while they do the tourist thing.
“BOP!” is the second single from the singer’s as-yet-untitled new album, which is set to release at the end of August. But she’s also given the single the deluxe treatment by releasing it alongside remixes from producers 808 Beach, LION BABE’s Astro Raw and Mel Holder and Kipper Jones. Each remix takes the song into different dance territories, but it all has the same goal of soundtracking good times and getting people on their feet.
Y’all better do as mother Vanessa Williams says and turn this one all the way up as you listen to the stream of the “BOP!” EP and watch the song’s video below.
