Meghan Trainor’s “Woman Up” Lyrics Meaning

As far as her body type goes, Meghan Trainor is currently more on the plus side. At the time she first came out, this was a revolutionary look as far as female pop singers go. So just her appearance alone, on top of the fact that she actually embraced it and tended to drop hard-core lady-centric songs like the one we’re covering today, established her as sort a feminist pop icon. 

Indeed we have all heard the phrase ‘man up’, in which a male is advised to be braver in the face of a challenging situation. And it is from such a stance that the title of this song (“Woman Up”) is also based, though in this case being aimed towards females.

And in this case we know exactly what the challenging situation is. It would be ladies facing singlehood. Indeed most women do not idealize themselves being unwed upon reaching full adulthood. So they may get bent out of shape if such a reality manifests itself in their life.

Or perhaps more specifically in terms of what we’re dealing with here, they may have already been married or been in an equally-serious romantic relationship but found such unsatisfactory.  That would be why for instance they “don’t need a man”. 

Such women don’t really have time to be preoccupied with romance or pursuing a partner, as they have their own business to attend to. Or simply put, they don’t need a male to validate or take care of them.

Lyrics are a shout out to Single Ladies

But again, being able to survive and prosper without a man does not negate the aforementioned ideology which many ladies may possess. As such, the singer is encouraging such women to put up an effort to make themselves feel good rather than relying on someone else to do so. 

So for instance, they are advised to ‘put on their favorite heels’, as doing so will make a lady “feel strong”. Or more to the point, “looking good” in general will imbue a lady with confidence. 

The implication is that what she is actually dressing up for is a night on town. And even in that regard she doesn’t need a man. And why? That’s because her attractiveness is fully capable of stealing the show on its own. 

Indeed once she is on the dance floor, she is empowered to “roll (her) bumper and whine slow”, i.e. use her physical assets, shall we say, to have even more fun and attract additional attention.

And overall, this song reads like Meghan Trainor is giving a shoutout to all of the single ladies in the club. And said shoutout especially goes out to those who don’t deem that they need a male partner to feel complete, as apparently does the singer herself.

Meghan Trainor

Meghan Trainor is a singer from Massachusetts who has been professionally active since 2009, i.e. when she was around 15 years old, self-releasing her projects at first. 

She went on to sign with Epic in 2014. And her debut single, “All About That Bass“, was one of the biggest hits of that year. It was so huge that it reached number one in a multitude of countries, including the US and UK. 

Additionally it has achieved diamond certification stateside and has also gone multi-platinum in the UK, Canada, Australia, etc. And the album it is featured on, 2015’s “Title”, which was also the first she released under a major label, performed comparably and established her as a music star.

As implied earlier, Meghan is perhaps known more for her image than her actual music. In fact as opposed to be being ashamed of her weight she rather embraced it. 

In 2016, at 5 feet 2 inches tall (157cm), she weighed in at 150 pounds (68kg). But in 2018 she noticeably lost a good 20 pounds with the encouragement of actor Daryl Sabar, who she went on to marry that very year. 

In fact Meghan had established herself as such an icon for plus-sized women that some of her fans actually got offended that she lost said weight.

Writing Credits for “Woman Up”

Meghan Trainor wrote and produced this song alongside Ricky Reed and a crew known as The Elev3n. Elev3n is made up of the following:

• Julio David Rodriguez
• James G. Morales
• Matthew Morales 

And the other writers of “Woman Up” are actress Tayla Parx, Nash Overstreet, Erika Nuri Taylor and Shane Stevens.

When was “Woman Up” released?

This track is from Trainor’s second major-label album, “Thank You”. And it was released with said project, as a product of Epic Records, on 13 May 2016.

“Thank You” was a notable hit, ranking third on the Billboard 200 and fifth on the UK Albums Chart, in addition to being certified platinum stateside.  

“Woman Up” was not released as one of the three singles from that project. Rather they were, respectively, “No, Me Too” and “Better”.

Does “Woman Up” make use of samples?

Yes. It samples another track entitled “Woman Up”, which was sung by Ashley Roberts and also produced by The Elev3n, in 2014. In fact Meghan Trainor was encouraged to drop her own rendition upon being inspired by the original early in her career.