Somi Kakoma Sets Release of New Album ‘What Does It Take to Bloom?’

Somi Kakoma, who played the titular role in Broadway’s Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, has set the release of her new album, What Does It Take to Bloom? out on August 7 under her moniker “Somi.”

Releasing via Salon Africana, this marks her first collection of original songs in six years. The first single, “We’re All Falling,” is available now and can be streamed below. Pre-save the album here.

The new album from the GRAMMY-nominated singer/songwriter is described as “an exploration into the ongoing process of staying faithful to oneself amid life’s dissonance.” Written and recorded between Dakar, Lagos, Paris and New York City, it examines the concept of growth, and it’s affect in the midst of uncertainty and change.

When asked about the album, she said, “I wrote this body of work while traversing many places and losing many people. 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.”

Tracklist:

1. Throw Something

2. Sometimes Love (ft. The Cavemen)

3. What Does It Take to Bloom?

4. Mama On Blooming

5. So You Want to Be a Woman (ft. Lakecia Benjamin)

6. Aiwah

7. Sugar

8. Mama On Tradition

9. Ngayaya

10. Lay It Down

11. Interlude: Skin To Skin

12. We’re All Falling

13. Love Could Be Anywhere

Select Tour Dates:

June 25 – New Haven, CT – International Festival Arts & Ideas

Sept. 17 – Champaign, IL – Krannert Center for Performing Arts

Sept, 18 – Evanston, IL – Space

Sept. 19 – Indianapolis, IN – Jazz Kitchen

Sept 27 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Skidmore College

Sept 29 – Madison, WI – Wisconsin Union Theater

Oct 1 – New York, NY – World Music Institute presents at Sony Hall

Oct 10 – Denver, CO – Dazzle

Oct 11 – San Francisco, CA – SFJazz Center 

Oct 12 – Santa Cruz, CA – Kuumbwa

Additional dates to be added.

About Somi

Vocalist, composer, actor, and playwright Somi Kakoma is the Midwestern daughter of immigrants from Uganda and Rwanda, known in the international jazz world simply as “Somi.” Her 2021 GRAMMY nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album made her the first African woman nominated in any of the GRAMMY Awards’ jazz categories.

Her last album, Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba, was a companion project to the original musical Dreaming Zenzile that Somi also wrote and starred in Off-Broadway as a tribute to the great South African singer and activist.

Somi is a recipient of two NAACP Image Awards and a Doris Duke Artist Award. She is also a Soros Equality Fellow, United States Artist Fellow, TED Senior Fellow, Sundance Theatre Fellow, and the founder of Salon Africana, a boutique cultural agency and record label. 

Somi made her Broadway debut in the titular role, and original production of the Tony Award-winning play Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. She holds degrees in Cultural Anthropology and African Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master’s degree in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, and a PhD in Critical Inquiry & Creative Practice from Harvard University. 

Photo Credit: Knoor the Luo