Sade Offers a Heartbreaking Apology to Her Trans Son on First New Song in Six Years: Listen

It’s been six years since soul-pop icon Sade released her last single — and now that she’s back, she has plenty to say.

On Friday (Oct. 25), the Red Hot Organization dropped an EP titled Transa: Selects, a collection of songs off of the non-profit’s upcoming compilation album, Transa, intended to bring awareness and understanding from the public at large to the transgender community. The first song on Friday’s EP is Sade’s “Young Lion,” a tender apology to her trans son, Izaak Adu.

Over a fluid, moving string section, Sade sings directly to Izaak, expressing regret for her lack of understanding throughout his life. “You must have felt so alone/ The anguish and pain/ I should’ve known,” she sings on the powerful opening verse. “With such a heavy burden/ You had to carry all on your own/ Forgive me, son/ I should’ve known.”

While Sade lets her words speak for herself on the album, her son Izaak shared his thoughts on the touching track in an interview with Rolling Stone. “Though there was nothing I needed to forgive her for, the lyrics ‘Forgive me, son, I should have known,’ struck a chord,” he said. “My mum never tried to oppress the boy; I silently always knew I was. She always let me be me.”

The remainder of Transa, due out on Nov. 22, features more than 100 artists creating over 3 hours of music in an eight-chapter project, all dedicated to the multifaceted trans experience in the world today. With artists including Sam Smith, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Andre 3000, Jeff Tweedy and plenty creating music for the project, Transa aims to get audiences to think critically about the way we treat transgender people in order to help create “a future oriented around values of community, collaboration, care and healing,” as Dust Reid, the album’s co-creator, said in a statement.

Listen to Sade’s “Young Lion” below: