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As Only She Can, Sade's 'The Big Unknown' Bottles A Resolute Sadness

Sade's "The Big Unknown" will appear on <em>Widows</em> — the movie and soundtrack come out Nov. 16.
Ethan Miller
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Getty Images
Sade's "The Big Unknown" will appear on Widows — the movie and soundtrack come out Nov. 16.

We are all Viola Davis, staring out of a window, crying and listening to Sade.

"The Big Unknown" will feature in the end credits to Widows, the Steve McQueen-directed thriller about four women who pay a criminal debt left behind by their dead husbands. The lyric video pairs the aching, slow-burning ballad with scenes from the film, as its characters cope and make plans to, well, kick some ass. But as Sade does, "The Big Unknown" bottles a sadness that is both overwhelming and resolute, determined to make the world right, but understands that grief forever breaks our bodies and souls.

"I'm just trying to hold on / I'm falling in the dark below / I feel I'm falling in the big unknown," Sade sings. "There's no fire and flame on this cold, cold plane / No way to measure my pain."

This is the second song that Sade has contributed to a soundtrack in 2018 (the first being "Flower of the Universe" for Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time).

"It was an honor to work with such a legend," Steve McQueen says. "Sade is an incomparable talent and incredible artist who so rarely releases new material, but luckily the original series of Widows had deeply resonated with her."

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