"Emma" is a 1974 song by the British
soul band
Hot Chocolate. Written by band members
Errol Brown (vocals) and
Tony Wilson (music), the song address themes of suicide, early death and lost childhood. Brown's lyrics celebrate his recently deceased mother. Their rawness was developed after the producer
Mickie Most asked him for further "depth and darkness".[2]
The song details the love of the (nameless) singer and a girl called Emmalene from the age of five, through a wedding at 17 until her
suicide at an unspecified later date. Emma it seems wanted to be a "movie queen" but could never find the breaks and eventually kills herself because "I just can't keep on living on dreams no more."
The Sisters of Mercy started performing the song live in 1983. The studio version was released on the
b-side of the 12" version of their 1988 single, "
Dominion", and on the 2006 re-release of the album, Floodland. A much-bootlegged alternate version from a 1984
John Peel radio session was officially released in 2021 on the "BBC Sessions 1982–1984" compilation.