Celebrate International Women’s Day with Emmy Meli’s empowerment anthem “I Am Woman”Celebrate International Women’s Day with Emmy Meli’s empowerment anthem “I Am Woman”

Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Billboard

It’s Woman’s History Month, and Tuesday is also International Women’s Day, so many fans will no doubt turn to Emmy Meli‘s hit “I Am Woman” — which has become an empowerment anthem after breaking out on TikTok last year — to celebrate both occasions.  Emmy says the very nature of womanhood inspired her to give the song that all-encompassing title.

“I didn’t say ‘I am A woman’ because to me, ‘I am woman’ feels like you’re embodying everything that comes with being a woman,” she tells ABC Audio. “‘I am woman’ means I can be a mother, I can be an artist, I can be a doctor, I can be a teacher, I can be an athlete. I am beautiful and powerful and special. It’s all of that.”

Since its release, fans have told Emmy about the impact the song’s had on their lives, and some have even gotten the title tattooed on their bodies. While at first, some people thought Emmy’s song was a cover of Helen Reddy‘s 1972 song of the same name, she’s proud that it’s started its own movement.

“I hope that people are going to be remembering my song and listening to my song…for a long time,” she says. “I hope that 40 years from now, when another girl writes another ‘I am woman,’  they’re going to be like ‘Nice cover of the song “I Am Woman” by Emmy Meli!'”

As for fans who get “I Am Woman” tattoos, Emmy says it’s “an incredible honor.”

“I have seen people tattoo Amy Winehouse…SZA…Lady Gaga [on themselves],” she says. “And I would just always think, like, ‘I wonder if someone would ever love me enough to tattoo something that I made or that I wrote on their body?'”  It’s ‘surreal,’ she says, that it actually happened. 

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.