Written By: Eve Muyanja
When Patricia Mitirikpwe sings Valentina, she doesn’t just sing to a person. She sings to the ghost of a love that lingers in memory and muscle. For such a short track, Valentina captures the aching simplicity of yearning with remarkable emotional precision. It’s a love letter suspended in time, addressed to the one who got away but never really left.
“Valentina
I still want you
Wanna kiss you every day
Hold your hand
Gift you books
Make you stay”
These lyrics, simple and unadorned, land like quiet revelations. They say everything that is often left unsaid: the mundane and the magical acts of love that continue to haunt the speaker’s daydreams. This is a lovesickness that doesn’t demand drama. It just asks to be heard.
Mitirikpwe’s voice is soft yet weighted, like a whisper carrying the gravity of a thousand unsent messages. There’s a particular ache in the way she repeats the name Valentina — a name turned mantra, turned memory. It’s this refrain that anchors the song and gives it its meditative pulse.
Musically, Valentina is minimal but textured. The acoustic guitar lays the groundwork, offering a tender rhythm that breathes. Subtle flute motifs and the sound of falling water shimmer in the background. These details make the production feel intimate and immersive. It’s almost as though the song is unfolding in the quietest corner of a home or within a deeply personal memory. Mitirikpwe doesn’t crowd the track with vocal gymnastics. Instead, she lets stillness speak.
One of the most striking elements is how the song resists repetition, save for the recurring Valentina hook. Each lyric line is unique, like a new page in a diary. This gives the song a sense of movement, even as it dwells in reflection. This subtle progression mirrors the emotional process of grief and longing: stuck in place, yet always inching forward.
For all its sadness, Valentina doesn’t ask for pity. Instead, it offers companionship. It is a musical mirror for anyone nursing old wounds or quietly carrying the weight of an unresolved romance. On any given day, at any hour, the song feels like a friend. One you can loop endlessly and never tire of, because it understands something you haven’t yet been able to say out loud.
In Valentina, Patricia Mitirikpwe achieves what many artists chase: emotional clarity through artistic restraint. It is a must-listen for lovers, the heartbroken, and everyone in between.
