SOMI ANNOUNCES ‘AFRICA IN BLOOM’ A NEW INTIMATE LIVE SERIES IN SA SOON

by hypress Wednesday, November 11, 2026

Following an inaugural ‘Africa in Bloom’ in Lagos, the GRAMMY-nominated vocalist and composer brings her acclaimed new album What Does It Take to Bloom? to South Africa

GRAMMY-nominated vocalist, composer, and songwriter Somi announces Africa in Bloom, a new series of intimate live performances and conversations across the African continent in support of her latest album, What Does It Take to Bloom? (Salon Africana).

Following a successful inaugural gathering in Lagos, Nigeria on 8 November, the series continues with three performances in South Africa from Saturday, the 28th November at The Chairman in Durban, Tuesday, the 1st December at Untitled Basement in Joburg, and Wednesday, the 2^nd December at Youngblood Gallery in Cape Town, as well as an album listening session in Johannesburg on 3 December at Mamakashaka.

More than a traditional concert tour, Africa in Bloom reflects Somi’s deepening commitment to centering the African continent in her creative practice and cultivating spaces for artistic exchange, reflection, and community gathering. Conceived as a series of intimate musical encounters, the initiative invites audiences into shared experiences of music and conversation, where storytelling and connection are as central as the songs themselves.

“I’ve spent much of my career building bridges between Africa and the rest of the world,” says Somi. “At this point in my life, I’m interested in what it means to spend more time on the continent itself — to listen, to gather, and to hold space for the kinds of conversations and connections that only happen when we’re in close quarters.”

The Africa in Bloom initiative takes its name from Somi’s latest album, What Does It Take to Bloom?, an intimate meditation on uncertainty, transformation, and the ongoing search for belonging. Written and recorded between Dakar, Lagos, Paris, and New York City, the album explores what it means to remain faithful to oneself amid life’s dissonance, asking whether growth is something we recognize as it happens or only after we have been transformed.

It was fitting that Africa in Bloom began in Lagos, the city where Somi first cultivated the intimate musical gatherings that would eventually inspire her landmark album The Lagos Music Salon, a project that marked a defining turning point in her career. Held on Sunday, November 8, at Miliki, the city’s culture-forward members club, the inaugural event brought together music, dialogue, and community in a format that echoed those early salons. The evening began with a listening session for What Does It Take to Bloom?, followed by a conversation moderated by acclaimed writer Nelson CJ between Somi and longtime collaborators and producers Cobhams Asuquo (The Lagos Music Salon, Zenzile) and Benjamin James of The Cavemen (What Does It Take to Bloom?).

The gathering culminated in a live performance featuring both collaborators and an all-star Nigerian ensemble. For Somi, whose work has long traversed the cultural bridge between Africa and its diaspora, the series marks an intentional shift toward sustained artistic presence and community-building on the continent. The upcoming South African dates include her first-ever performance in Durban and her first return to Cape Town in several years. Somi last appeared in Johannesburg in March of this year when she delivered a stirring performance as co-headliner of her dear friend Thandiswa Mazwai’s inaugural Sankofa Festival.

For Somi, every album is an act of place-making. Her catalogue reads like a map of migration and memory, with projects rooted in Lagos, Harlem, and the spirit and political inheritance of Miriam Makeba. On What Does It Take to Bloom?, that exploration turns inward, asking what it means to find home within oneself. With Africa in Bloom, Somi extends that question outward again, considering how the act of gathering, listening, and sharing music can create new possibilities for belonging.

“I wrote this body of work while traversing many places and losing many people,” says Somi. “This album is a mirror of searching for where and how to take root in spite of that. I pray these songs offer each listener a sense of Home or, at the very least, a witnessing of me coming Home to myself.”

A two-time NAACP Image Award winner and Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, Somi made history in 2021 when she became the first African woman to be nominated for a GRAMMY Award in any of the jazz categories. Blending jazz, soul, African musical traditions, and spoken word, she has built an acclaimed international career that resists easy categorization. Her work continues to expand the possibilities of contemporary African musical expression through a practice rooted in storytelling, cultural memory, and creative freedom. The Africa in Bloom series signals a new chapter in that journey, one in which blooming is understood not only as personal transformation but also as the collective work of nurturing relationships, creating space, and imagining new ways of being together.

Additional performances and gatherings in African cities will be announced soon.