Dawn Richard shares ‘chuuuuurch’ with jelly joseph, the third single from her New Orleans album ‘Creole Culture,’ out Oct. 9
Dawn Richard has spent two decades refusing to stay in one place, and “chuuuuurch” is the sound of her deciding that survival itself is worth celebrating. The New Orleans singer, songwriter, producer, and multidisciplinary artist released the track on August 25 as the third single from her forthcoming album Creole Culture, out October 9 via Merge Records. Featuring fellow New Orleans vocalist Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, it is an attitudinal dancefloor anthem that doubles as a session of self-administered therapy.
The concept is right there in the title. For Richard, “church” is not a building but an affirmation, a communal call-and-response repurposed as private armor.
‘chuuuuurch’ is really a conversation with myself, addressing my journey through this industry and the many times I’ve had to remind myself of who I am,” she explained. “Culturally, saying ‘church’ is its own kind of affirmation. It’s ‘amen.’ It’s ‘you right.’ And sometimes, when no one else is there to affirm you, you have to amen yourself”
That last line is the thesis of the whole song.
From Gospel to the Dancefloor
Musically, “chuuuuurch” travels the same distance its lyrics do. The track moves through gospel, New Orleans bounce, and dance music, built on a great early-’90s-style house bassline that nods directly to the euphoric club energy of Crystal Waters and La Bouche. It is Richard at her funkiest and most linear, delivering affirmations about as energetically as anyone could, letting the groove carry the weight of decades of hard-won perspective. The result feels less like a lament about the music business and more like a victory lap taken in spite of it.
The accompanying video pushes the theme into the theatrical. Directed by Zebretta Johnson with animation by Richard herself, it leans into a Robert Rodriguez-inspired cinematic world, with Richard testifying before a congregation about her personal journey, the highs, the setbacks, the judgment, and the constant process of building herself back up. “Visually, we wanted it to feel bold, theatrical, slightly surreal, and cinematic while still carrying the humor, grit, and spirit of the record,” Richard said. The church framing is not incidental. It is the entire emotional architecture.
Rebuilding New Orleans in Her Image
“chuuuuurch” arrives as the latest window into one of the most ambitious projects of Richard’s career. Creole Culture is a further, deeper exploration of her New Orleans roots, recorded with drummer and producer Greg Paul and his Katalyst Collective. Following 2019’s New Breed and 2021’s Second Line, it completes a kind of triptych, a fully realized sonic and narrative universe in which Richard, cast as King Creole, rebuilds her hometown in her own image. Drawing on her heritage as a Black and Native American woman, she honors the city not just for what it gave her but stakes a claim for it as a cradle of global culture.
That framing gives “chuuuuurch” its stakes. This is an artist who has moved fluidly through R&B, electronic music, and avant-pop across a long and often underappreciated career, and Creole Culture positions all of it as part of a larger inheritance. The early singles, “enough” and the Durand Bernarr duet “baby, can we?,” suggested a looser, funkier Richard, and “chuuuuurch” confirms it.
The single lands as Dawn Richard prepares to bring the project to the stage, with dates including a hometown show at New Orleans’ Orpheum Theater and stops in New York and Philadelphia. For an artist who has survived the unimaginable and kept creating on her own terms, “chuuuuurch” is a fitting rallying cry. When the industry withholds its blessing, Dawn Richard has learned to bless herself. Creole Culture arrives October 9 via Merge Records.
