The schools have officially been opened, and Vanessa Williams is the only teacher we need.
Williams, 61, released her new song and accompanying music video, “Legs (Keep Dancing),” on Friday, April 26, and fans already can’t get enough. “Vanessa Williams just dropped a new song and video!!!!!! 61 y’all 🗣️ oh you pop girls are in danger,” one impressed listener wrote via X. “Wait a minute now Vanessa Williams dropped a bop,” added another social media user.
The song is about refusing to give up on yourself simply because you’re getting older. “Say what you say, expect me to fade / I don’t think about it, I don’t think about it,” Williams sings on the pre-chorus. “I got work left to do and I’m not close to through / Not while I still got these legs.”
Her jubilantly defiant attitude continues on the chorus with the lyrics, “They say the legs are the last to go (I’mma keep dancing) / I’m still putting on a show (I’mma keep dancing) / Till I can’t do it no more.”
Williams does indeed keep dancing throughout the video, which shows her executing some major choreography with help from numerous backup performers.
Ahead of the song’s release, Williams shared a clip of herself walking into a rehearsal room as prospective dancers prepped for their auditions. “Let me show these children,” she captioned the post.
In the comments section, Mike Ruiz, who directed the video, quipped, “Sometimes the children just need to be schooled!!”
The title of the song is a reference to Diahann Carroll’s 2008 memoir, The Legs Are the Last to Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, and Other Things I Learned the Hard Way.
“The whole concept was Vanessa’s idea,” cowriter Kipper Jones said in a press release, adding that Williams just knew she wanted to incorporate Carroll’s title somewhere in the song. “[Vanessa] didn’t know whether it was the title of the song or the lyric or whatever. I didn’t find that unusual at all. That is also how we came up with ‘The Comfort Zone’ back in 1991.”
Earlier this month, Williams announced her new full-length album will be arriving later this year.
“What a joy it is to be making new music behind the [mic] again with old friends,” she said in a statement. “There’s a certain comfort in creating new works in the studio while reminiscing about how so many years in this business have brought successes, excitement and lasting memories. Always moving forward is what drives me. Every challenge is exciting. And more new music to share with my fans is the fuel that lights my fire.”
