Somaya, the Montreal alternative R&B artist, announces the release of her very first album LAYALI on August 28. Active on the music scene since 2024, she stood out with “Rhinestones”, “Mary” and her collaboration with Childhood Friend on “SOIE”.
Imbued with vulnerability, LAYALI is a deeply personal album born from a need to understand herself and to put into words and music her pain, her heartache, her loneliness and her journey towards herself. It is an open door to his soul.
Through this album, Somaya explores the different facets of femininity and celebrates the beauty that can emerge from what weakens us. She thus encourages women to fully trust their voices and their intuitions, while creating a space for femininity, nuance and sincere emotional speech in an industry still largely shaped by men.
Self-discovery plays a central role in LAYALI. For Somaya, this inner journey also involves a connection to her origins. The daughter of an Egyptian mother, she makes this album a space where her North African heritage can be freely expressed through music. Not speaking Arabic, she finds in music a universal language capable of transmitting what words sometimes cannot say.
LAYALI creates a bridge between the different facets of its identity, bringing together its Western heritage and its North African roots. This desire is reflected even in the sounds of the album, with the use of the oud, percussion and string arrangements inspired by the world of the Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum. The personal and vulnerable touch is all the more notable because the voices of members of his family are also integrated into certain tracks, making the project an intimate tribute to his family and, more particularly, to the women who shaped his history and his identity.
Somaya did not impose a genre framework or structure on herself, she let emotion guide her creation. This freedom gives birth to a fluid and organic project, where alternative R&B, neo-soul and Arabic sounds meet to create an atmospheric and cinematic universe.
A physical launch of the album is planned for September 16 at La Sala Rossa, in Montreal. One word to describe this album and the launch party: truth. By drawing on his past, his origins and his fragilities, the artist creates a work where vulnerability becomes a strength and gentleness, a form of power.