The video was inspired by the 1960 French-Italian film Two Women, starring Sophia Loren. It follows the dilemma of a single mother struggling to conciliate her children's needs with her dream of becoming a singer. The music video for "King of Sorrow", directed by Sophie Muller, was filmed at and around the Normandie Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Ponce, Puerto Rico. Whether it's to memorialize romantic pain or to recover from it, the act of aggrandizement is easily forgiven." Music video This song allows one to feel very dark inside, yet the music gives a sense of overwhelming soulful bliss that takes away the blues feeling of the song." A reviewer from People Magazine noted that "even such sad songs", as “King of Sorrow”, "attest to the adage that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger." Frank Guan of Vulture said it "witnesses Sade anointing herself a monarch. Retrieved 8 November 2021.Tanya Rena Jefferson of AXS wrote, "Sade sings a heartfelt song that is sad and deep of sorrow and no one can take her sorrows away.
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