GRAMMY-nominated vocalist and songwriter Somi is entering a new creative chapter – and she’s inviting listeners along for the journey. Her new album, What Does It Take to Bloom?, arrives on 7 August via her Salon Africana imprint, with the latest single “Sometimes Love (feat. The Cavemen.)” setting the tone for what’s to come.
Recorded in Lagos with acclaimed Nigerian sibling duo The Cavemen., “Sometimes Love” is a groove-heavy, sun-soaked reflection on how love appears in our lives – often unexpectedly, and in many different forms. Somi describes the track as a meditation on keeping an open heart and staying receptive to possibility, wherever we find ourselves along the way.
What Does It Take to Bloom? leans into a contemporary, global sound while staying rooted in heritage. Co-produced by Benjamin James of The Cavemen., the record weaves together jazz, soul, highlife, spoken word and Somi’s African musical inheritance into an intimate exploration of uncertainty and change.
Across the album, Somi poses a quiet but powerful question: do we realise we’re growing while it’s happening, or only once we look back and recognise who we’ve become? That tension – between the moment and the memory, between becoming and being – runs through the project’s lyrics and lush arrangements.
The new single follows “We’re All Falling,” the lead track from the album and one of its most emotionally direct statements. Written in a period of personal loss, “We’re All Falling” confronts mortality with clarity, asking listeners to honour both their grief and their capacity to keep living fully in the present.
Somi’s catalogue has long worked like a map, tracing migration, memory and identity between Africa and America. Previous projects have been anchored in specific geographies – Nigerian cities, Harlem, and the spiritual-political legacy of icons like Miriam Makeba.
On What Does It Take to Bloom?, the terrain shifts. Written and recorded between Dakar, Lagos, Paris and New York City, the “place” being mapped is not a single city or community, but the self. Instead of pointing outward to a location, these songs look inward to chart how a person changes, heals and comes into fuller belonging.
Having spent years both within and just outside the global jazz scene, Somi has never sat comfortably inside one genre box. This album continues that refusal to be easily categorised: she stretches her voice further, takes more risks, and trusts instinct over expectation. In many ways, that artistic defiance – the decision not to shrink to fit – is part of the bloom the title refers to.
At its core, What Does It Take to Bloom? is an album about belonging and the long, unfinished journey toward wholeness. Somi writes about experiences we can’t control, the layered realities of womanhood, and the different paths of self-discovery that shape who we become.
Rather than offering neat answers, the record sits with complexity. It acknowledges that blooming isn’t a single moment, but a series of choices, seasons and revelations. Somi hopes listeners will recognise pieces of themselves in these songs; and for those who don’t, she extends an invitation to simply witness a woman coming home to herself.
Tracklist: What Does It Take to Bloom?
- Throw Something
- Sometimes Love (feat. The Cavemen.)
- What Does It Take to Bloom?
- Mama On Blooming
- So You Want to Be a Woman (feat. Lakecia Benjamin)
- Aiwah
- Sugar
- Mama On Tradition
- Ngayaya
- Lay It Down
- Interlude: Skin To Skin
- We’re All Falling
- Love Could Be Anywhere
“Sometimes Love” is available now on major streaming platforms, offering a first deep listen into the sonic and emotional world of What Does It Take to Bloom?. As the 7 August release date approaches, this single hints at an album that’s as much about self-discovery as it is about sound – a project for anyone who has ever wondered what it truly takes to bloom.