Somi Flips Miriam Makeba’s “Milele” Into Upbeat Anthem Featuring Seun Kuti + Thandiswa Mazwai

Tribute Album Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba Slated for July 30 Release via Salon Africana

Album Guests Include Angelique Kidjo, Gregory Porter, Ladysmith Black Mambazo + more

June 18, 2021 – Today, internationally acclaimed and Grammy-nominated vocalist Somi unveils her newest single “Milele” ft. Seun Kuti and Thandiswa Mazwai. “Milele” is the second track from her forthcoming album Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba, a celebration of the late Makeba’s invaluable musical contributions and messages of social justice. Also featured on the track are friends and fellow musicians Seun Kuti (son of famed Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti) and Thandiswa Mazwai. With their help, Somi is able to transform the track into an upbeat anthem with opening words of female empowerment – “The African woman is to be loved. To be exalted. To be handled with grace. To be respected fiercely.” Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba is slated for a July 30 release on Somi’s own label, Salon Africana, and is composed of both Makeba’s own compositions and covers.

Take a listen to Somi’s fresh take on “Milele” HERE

Also, check out “Pata Pata” HERE, the lead single from the forthcoming album

Recently, Spotify announced its partnership with Somi as the latest African singer to join its EQUAL Music Program. The EQUAL Music Program is a global initiative that Spotify has created to cultivate gender equality in music and support female creators under one brand. In celebration of the partnership and new music, Somi will be featured on a billboard in Times Square.

Regarded as one of Africa’s first international superstars, Makeba (whose given name is ‘Zenzile’) elevated the spirit of a continent, including her native South Africa. Her courage, however, was met with three decades of political exile from her homeland followed by blacklisting in the United States after her marriage to civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael. Somi’s lifelong love of Makeba’s music and personal strength led to a record that she hopes will inspire a rediscovery of Makeba’s life and work. Somi adds, “This album is my attempt to honor the unapologetic voice of an African woman who inevitably made room for my own journey and countless other African artists. In short, I owe her. We all do.”

In recognition of Makeba’s resonance throughout Africa and the diaspora, Somi invited a number of special guests to perform on the record. From South Africa, Grammy-winning male vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, singer-songwriter Msaki, vocalist and activist Thandiswa Mazwai, and jazz pianist-composer Nduduzo Makhathini join Somi for the tribute. Guests also include Grammy-winning American jazz singer Gregory Porter, Nigerian singer-musician Seun Kuti (Fela Kuti’s youngest son), and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and activist, Angelique Kidjo.

Somi will take the story of Makeba’s life to the theater stage with her original musical Dreaming Zenzile, launched by The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (The Rep). Under the direction of Lileana Blain-Cruz, the rolling world premiere production of Dreaming Zenzile, based on the life of Miriam Makeba, will journey from the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis to the McCarter Theatre Center to Arts Emerson to a New York City collaboration with the Apollo Theater, National Black Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop, all in partnership with Octopus Theatricals. The soul-stirring production includes a live jazz band playing original music and reinterpretations of Makeba’s remarkable catalog.

“As the daughter of Rwandan and Ugandan immigrants, this show is personal because Miriam Makeba paved the way for artists like me,” says Somi. “This work is about uplifting her legacy as a conscious revolutionary who brought Africa to the world’s center stage.”

Learn more about Dreaming Zenzile and tickets HERE.

Pre-order Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba HERE

Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba Tracklist

Umhome

House of the Rising Sun

Milele feat. Seun Kuti & Thandiswa Mazwai

Hapo Zamani

Love Tastes Like Strawberries feat. Gregory Porter

Khuluma feat. Msaki

Pata Pata

A Piece of Ground

Kwedini

Lakutshon’ilanga

Olili

Mbombela

Jike’lemaweni feat. Angelique Kidjo

Nonqonqo feat. Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Malaika

Ring Bell, Ring Bell

Mabhongo feat. Nduduzo Makhathini

ABOUT SOMI

Somi Kakoma is singer, songwriter, playwright and actor of Rwandan and Ugandan descent. She has released seven acclaimed albums, scoring positions on the World Music, Jazz, and Heatseekers charts. Somi’s records have featured guests including Common, Angelique Kidjo, and renowned South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, who became her longtime mentor. She has been widely honored as a Soros Equality Fellow, a TED Senior Fellow, a USA Doris Duke Fellow, a 2021 Grammy nominee, and a recipient of two NAACP Image Awards. She performed at Carnegie Hall alongside Hugh Masekela, Dave Matthews, and Vusi Mahlesela in celebration of South African democracy, and was invited by UN Secretary General to perform in commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victimes of Slavery. Somi is the founder of Salon Africana, a boutique arts agency and label for contemporary African musicians and writers. She holds undergraduate degrees in Anthropology and African Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Master’s degree in Performance Studies from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Connect with Somi

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For more information please contact Rebecca Shapiro (rshapiro@shorefire.com) or Jerome Ware (jware@shorefire.com) at Shore Fire Media.