Moriah Mensah interrogates artistic ambition on exhilarating debut single “Hero”

With a debut that feels impressive from the outset, 19-year-old Mensah emerges as the latest in a line of flourishing UK Ug talent. Released via Black Butter Records, “Hero” is a collision of maximalist synth-pop and psychologically restless lyricism, simultaneously romanticising and interrogating the near-obsessive pursuit of ambition. Built around towering synths and heavy percussion, “Hero” is intentionally overwhelming, swallowing its listener whole before stepping back into poignant moments of emotional clarity.

“I am definitely a maximalist when it comes to production,” she says. “I’m always striving for a sound that is daring but honest. I often think that my songs vacillate between two stories in the production and writing, like an ABAB plot in a sitcom, separate but joined together through an imminent resolution.” That juxtaposition lies at the centre of “Hero”. Whilst its production feels larger than life, the lyrics underneath remain deeply restless, as fantasies of fame meet underlying exhaustion and loneliness.

Growing up in Peckham, Mensah describes being shaped as much by passing sounds and environments she grew up around as by traditional musical influences. “When I was younger, I loved the sound of radio sets in passing cars off Rye Lane,” she recalls. “It was sort of like listening to a flash experimental mash-up.” That sensory overstimulation pulses throughout “Hero”, chaotic yet still meticulously constructed and produced.

Beyond music, Mensah’s creative world pulls from fashion, architecture, film and design, with references spanning everyone from La Roux and Lady Gaga to Gregg Araki, Daniel Roseberry, and Martine Rose. When asked what connects those varying creative influences, “honesty” is her word of choice. “Complete honesty in their individual greatness, they’re not trying to be anyone else. Their artistry is whole and polished, but as people, they don’t shy away from talking about their beginnings as artists.”

That same sense of self-awareness appears throughout Mensah’s own work. Despite her young age, and “Hero” only being her debut single, she already approaches artistry with a strikingly developed visual and structural language, describing herself as a “sonic sculpture” whilst discussing her production process. “When I’m producing, I like to add stuff, take away. I see my drum kits as my materials.”

If listeners could physically step inside the world of “Hero”, Mensah imagines it as “a dimly lit party with faulty LED lights and everyone dressed in black with neon ski masks.” It’s a cinematic image that perfectly encapsulates the track itself, stylish and charged, even faintly dystopian. Mensah reveals the extent to which fiction and visual storytelling shape her songwriting.

Referencing the song’s “final girl” lyric – “Sirens glaring I’m the final girl / No kill – she explains her fascination with horror aesthetics: “I find a lot of solace in fiction, especially comedy and thrillers. I would like to think that I could survive a thriller, but I don’t think I have the will or spatial awareness to do that. Calling myself a ‘final girl’ in my head felt quite facetious.”

Elsewhere, “Hero” reflects the intensity of trying to construct both an artistic identity and personal selfhood simultaneously at a young age. But rather than treating ambition as embarrassing or superficial, Mensah embraces it completely, framing it as one of the defining constants of her personality. “I think I’ll always have intense ambition no matter how old I am,” she says. “It’s probably the one trait of mine that has stayed firm in my personality through all of my development.”

Perhaps most impressively, “Hero” is entirely self-produced, something Mensah speaks about with pride: “It wasn’t really at the front of my mind to be like ‘My first single has to be self-produced,” she says. “But I think it’s cool that it happened that way for sure, adds a bit of that honesty to the project that I like as an artist.”