GRAMMY Nominated Somi Releases ‘So You Want To Be A Woman’ Ahead of New Album
GRAMMY nominated vocalist and songwriter Somi has unveiled her deeply personal new single, So You Want To Be A Woman, offering an emotionally charged reflection on identity, resilience and the realities of womanhood as anticipation builds for her forthcoming album.
Released late last week through Salon Africana, the track is the third single from her upcoming album, What Does It Take to Bloom?, which is scheduled for release on 7 August. More than a preview of a new record, the song arrives as an intimate conversation about the invisible expectations women carry and the emotional cost of growing into themselves.
Featuring a striking collaboration with GRAMMY nominated saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, the song pairs Somi’s commanding vocals with an electrifying saxophone performance that intensifies its emotional depth. Together, they create a soundscape that is both vulnerable and defiant, inviting listeners into an experience that is as personal as it is universal.
At the heart of the single is Somi’s exploration of Black womanhood. Rather than offering easy answers, the song reflects on the beauty, sacrifice and complexity that often accompany becoming a woman.
Reflecting on the inspiration behind the track, Somi said:
“So You Want To Be A Woman is a conversation with the younger version of myself who could never have imagined the beauty and burden that would accompany becoming a woman.”
She added:
“While the title of the song poses a question, I hope the answer is one that offers women everywhere a future shaped by greater freedom and possibilities.”
The release follows two acclaimed singles that introduced audiences to different dimensions of the forthcoming album. Sometimes Love, featuring The Cavemen, transports listeners to the warmth and rhythm of Lagos with its groove driven celebration of love, while We’re All Falling confronts mortality with honesty and emotional clarity.
For Somi, music has never simply been about songs. Every album has served as a map of identity, memory and belonging.
Across her career, she has explored the cultural connections between Africa and the United States, drawing inspiration from Nigeria, Harlem and the enduring legacy of South African icon Miriam Makeba. Her work has consistently blended jazz, soul, highlife, spoken word and African musical traditions into a distinctive artistic voice that resists easy definition.
With What Does It Take to Bloom?, however, the journey becomes even more intimate.
Written and recorded across Dakar, Lagos, Paris and New York City, the album shifts its focus away from geography and towards self discovery. Instead of charting places, Somi charts personal transformation, asking what it truly means to find belonging within oneself.
The project also marks a significant creative evolution. Embracing greater vocal freedom and trusting her artistic instincts more deeply than ever before, Somi steps away from expectations and refuses to be confined by genre.
That artistic liberation lies at the centre of the album’s message.
Rather than presenting growth as a destination, What Does It Take to Bloom? portrays it as an ongoing process shaped by uncertainty, vulnerability and resilience. Through reflections on womanhood, life’s unpredictable challenges and the search for identity, Somi invites listeners to recognise pieces of themselves within her music.
And for those whose experiences differ from her own, she offers something equally powerful: the opportunity to witness an artist courageously finding her way home to herself.
