Top 33 Neneh Cherry Quotes

I’ve always worked with my partner, my husband, Cameron, since ‘Raw Like Sushi,’ and in a way, I feel very free with what I do, but he also has an amazing insight in having intuitions that tend to be right a lot of the time, about where we should go next.

I’m 50. And I’m not ever really worried about being trendy.

I’ve always looked to other women for inspiration and kicks. When a woman stands up and does her thing, it never ceases to excite and inspire me.

You come to these thresholds in your life where you need to remember why you do what you do, to reconnect with yourself. When I look back at something like ‘Raw Like Sushi,’ I think I was very much in the right place at the right time.

Frank Ocean is our modern-day Marvin Gaye. In our house, we have nothing but respect for him.

I admire someone like Beyonce. She has amazing commitment. I needed to accept that I probably did not fit into that forum. Doing that ‘The Cherry Thing’ record was a big part of finding that place where I belong, where I may shine, but I never doubted it was there.

I love collard greens and sweet potatoes. But like, traveling, I’m always just looking for that thing where you feel like there’s love in the food. Like one of the best things, in Brazil it’s feijoada. I was in Tobago in the winter, and I had the best roti I’ve ever had, with curry goat.

What’s sometimes really overwhelming in Sweden is the uniformity. People kind of disappear by all looking the same and wearing the same clothes. There are a lot of great individuals, but it can become a very blank and bleak picture.

Rip Rig + Panic that I joined, they were really influenced by jazz and blues and punk. So I think what happened from punk, which was kind of DIY, was that it created a kind of creative place that was kind of without limits, in a way.

Being a grandmother is one of the least strange things in my life. It makes more sense than a lot of things… like photo shoots!

I’ve never been very good at fitting into boxes.

I like Kelela. I like Twigs. I love the more old school; I hate to say old school, but I love Peaches; I love Peaches, I love Cat Power. And there’s constantly new things coming up. But there’s something so beautifully powerful – for me being a woman, when there’s a woman doing something, it really strikes a chord.

I’ve never really spent too much or put too much gravity or placed too much importance on being a pop star. It’s like, OK, great, does that mean I don’t have to do anything anymore except walk around and be a pop star?

Everyone in Sweden has great hair and teeth and is clean-cut and organised.

There’s been a lot of coming home in the early mornings after funny nights out, having bizarre sandwiches in bed.

When I found out I was pregnant, my mother said, ‘Don’t separate your life, the life that you’re going to make with this child, from the things that you are and what you want to do.’

I’m quite a particular singer, and I need to feel like I can bite into the song, in a way, to make it my own. You want the challenge of the songs having some attitude.

I love Robyn, not just because we’ve worked together. I mean, that’s why we’ve worked together – because I love her.

I’m not an amazingly trained soul singer, so with me it’s about feeling and energy and spontaneity – that’s a really big part of who I am.

The race is your face. Obviously, I come from a mixed background. Who I am and how I look and being black.

Some people might be groomed for success; I’ve just always thought I’ve got a hell of a lot of things to learn and places to go. Creatively, I couldn’t stay on the same treadmill. I chose to be off-centre and do collaborative work.

I don’t live my life through my kids, nor do I expect them to live theirs through mine. But of course, they’re everything.

Rip Rig & Panic was a milestone for me, and I’ve always been really thankful that I did that when I was 16. It saved me for when I suddenly became really successful later on. So even when my head’s been spinning like a banshee, my feet still feel held down to the ground.

I have absorbed my life now. I am ready for my music to unfold. I know time flies, but before the end of this year, the album will be out. Even if it kills me.

I always found very strong images for my songwriting in New York.

My daughters are my Picassos.

When ‘Raw Like Sushi’ came out in the U.S., I wasn’t considered to be black enough. They didn’t really know where to put me. The music wasn’t ‘black black’ sounding. It wasn’t R&B; it wasn’t straight up hip-hop, although obviously in that dimension and world.

When I was going to school, I just wanted to be like everybody else. I would pull at my hair to try and get it to lie straight. America was where I would consume and absorb black culture, buy Ultra Sheen and watch ‘Soul Train,’ but I still had that weird in-between thing.

Both my parents were working-class and had dreams of making the world a better place. It’s pretty powerful, being able to reflect back their beliefs.

I’m a bit of a rebel, and I always will be.

Who needs a handbag? I put my money in my bra.

I found my place when I moved to London, where I chose to live, making my own tribe who were all from different backgrounds and places. The class thing is very dominant there, but in the cultural cross-fertilization, I felt a sense of belonging.

To me, a song is a song when you can sit in a room and just sing it from end to end.