GRAMMY-nominated singer/songwriter Somi releases her new album What Does It Take to Bloom? on August 7 via Salon Africana. A two-time NAACP Image Award winner and Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, her first collection of original songs in six years is 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, the album weaves global sensibilities into an intimate meditation on uncertainty and change — asking whether growth is something we recognize as it’s happening, or once we’ve already been transformed. Having spent years navigating the global jazz scene while also feeling adjacent to it, Somi defies categorization — embracing a hybrid of jazz, soul, highlife, spoken word, and her African heritage. What Does It Take to Bloom? marks an evolution of Somi’s sound and finds her taking greater vocal risks while trusting her instincts more deeply. Abandoning the need to fit inside any artistic box, that refusal in itself is a form of blooming.