Nashville-based artist Crystal Rose shows loads of emotion in her 2023 Tiny Desk Contest entry, “Mad Black Lady.” It is one of many issues about her efficiency that almost all impressed Tiny Desk Contest decide Sharon Van Etten, who featured Rose’s entry in an episode of Tiny Desk Contest High Shelf.

Rose — one in every of a handful of Contest artists whose tales we’re sharing on Weekend Version this summer season — hasn’t at all times felt like she may share these emotions.

“Being the one Black particular person within the [white] areas I grew up in was tough,” Rose shares. “I seen that I used to be totally different and it made me really feel like I needed to do extra to be accepted … I used to be at all times going to be seen for something I did.”

Rose moved round rather a lot and says she did not know learn how to launch the ache she was feeling.

“There was a time once I was a really, very offended particular person,” she says. “They labeled me impulsive. Being offended on a regular basis as a child actually received me in loads of locations I did not wish to be.”

However then, at age 13, she gained a music competitors and had the chance to sing the Nationwide Anthem at an area college — and music helped her discover her energy.

“I believe that was the second I instructed myself ‘that is cool — that is one thing I wish to do,'” she says. “Applause felt like validation.”

Rose says it was cathartic to carry out “Mad Black Lady,” which “tells the story of what number of instances folks will understand us to be smaller than we’re — when in actuality, we’re all dynamic, sophisticated and fairly extraordinary.”

She tells Weekend Version that she appreciated having the ability to submit a video in order that she may categorical herself. “I did not wish to simply sit down and sing the music — I actually needed to really feel every part I used to be singing,” she shares.

“Preserve your head up / Eyes entrance / Fall in line / At all times play good / Keep poised and constant / Possibly I’ve grown bored with conserving it collectively,” she sings within the entry. “For me to have the ability to discuss my life experiences as a Black lady … it feels highly effective to me as a result of there was a time limit the place I could not say that I needed to be offended,” she says.

“It isn’t simply anger,” she ultimately realized. “It is energy. It appears like I am taking again my energy.”