Ever since her debut in the music world, much that can be said about Afropop or soul singer Simi has been that she has been evolving. Her steady but also fruitful rise has seen the musician reaching for her next studio album – the fifth in 16 years – which will be titled Lost and Found.

As she prepares to release the latest body of work by Friday 5 July 2024, the singer finds herself mulling on a path of rediscovery. In 2008 when she was just starting and was still very new to the scene, everything about her musical journey seemed defined and had a workable template she was going to be able to navigate with.

But over the years, with global fame and family life getting into her space, the singer somewhat felt she was disconnecting from her regular self. She hopes to realign with what is understood to be her actual self in the upcoming album and has been informing her X profile following about what they can expect.

Just as the national holiday was drawing to a close yesterday, she intimated to fans and anyone who cares to listen about an imminent transition that would commence as soon as early July.

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For most of my life, writes Simi in a tweet, I have enjoyed the privilege of knowing myself deeply, unwaveringly, truly.

Then the Spotify EQUAL Africa music program ambassador of July 2022 also adds that in more recent years, I have also endured the discomfort of losing myself. Sometimes, to make room for something else that I needed to be – other times, because I could not, for the life of me, find my way. I felt like a stranger to myself. This version of me has been the hardest one to look at in the mirror.

What seemed like might have been permanently lost will soon be revisited and retrieved in the upcoming album, but she can only hope for now.

Two months ago, she brought on fellow symbol of girl power Tiwa Savage to feature on a single titled Men Are Crazy. The song touched on the necessity and intersections that connect both men and women through a romance prism. It is the sort of imagery Simi’s listeners would recognise from when she was a newbie in the music scene and what mostly her female audience wanted to unravel about the opposite gender.

For most of my life, I have enjoyed the privilege of knowing myself deeply, unwaveringly, truly. In more recent years, I have also endured the discomfort of losing myself. Sometimes, to make room for something else that I needed to be – other times, because I could not, for the… pic.twitter.com/DuOUcnQUne

— Simi (@SympLySimi) June 18, 2024

Releasing Men Are Crazy on 5 April alerted the music heads about a feisty songbird that was shedding off the scales of motherhood and being a wife for a minute so that she could focus on what drew her close to everyone in the first place – her not holding back on women-centric topics that attract both sides of the aisle.

The jury isn’t out yet concerning what Lost and Found will bring when it drops next month as the conversation around Simi at the cusp of rediscovery is still under wraps.

As Simi herself puts it in the Tuesday tweet: When I sing, I do it first for me, then for you. In this order, because I cannot give what I do not have. “LOST AND FOUND” is about me reclaiming my chemistry with music, melody and love stories. I hope you feel it too when you listen. I hope you enjoy it, regardless of the journey that brought it to you. Experience it, knowing that nobody can bring you, what I can. What I have. What I will.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.