Cynthia Erivo Announces Album ‘CH. 1 VS. 1’ Drops Single Black Queer Love Anthem ‘The Good’

The multi-talented Cynthia Erivo has revealed that her debut album CH.1 VS. 1 arrives on September 17th with the Grammy and Tony winner releasing the collection of original songs through Verve Records. The album is preceded by single The Good, an anthem celebrating Black queer love.

On the upcoming album, Cynthia notes: “In storytelling, chapter one and verse one is the way you always begin, and because I believe I’m a storyteller, that’s what I wanted to do with my music. That’s what this is about, just starting [and revealing] the human parts of me that you don’t often get to see.”

Cynthia co-writes all the tracks on the album and did so over the last two years, noting she had “a duty to tell people something.” She describes the joyful, soul-flavoured debut single The Good as being about positive memories that can help heal loss, about remembering the good – an uplifting break-up song essentially.

With a video centred on the love between two Black queer women, Cynthia notes “I wanted to normalize seeing Black women in a relationship on screen, because often it’s really fetishistic. It was important to have “something that felt full of heart.”

The album is described as socially-inspired soul, alt R&B and pop, and gospel. Check out the full tracklist below:

1. What In The World 
2. Alive
3. Hero
4. The Good
5. Day Off
6. A Window 
7. I Might Be In Love With You
8. Sweet Sarah
9. Tears
10. You’re Not Here 
11. Glowing Up
12. Mama

Pre-order the album here.