Jun
Samora
Free Up
Samora has a fantastic voice, full of fire and energy. She knows how to instantly steal everyone’s heart with her fresh, cheerful appearance and enthusiasm on stage. Not really surprising because Samora Souprayen, born in Paramaribo, Suriname, has been involved in music from an early age and is destined to take her place in front of the stage. Samora is at the beginning of many beautiful things.
With her tight live band, consisting of experienced musicians, she is ready to blow her public away and to conquer the stages and festivals in the Netherlands and abroad! After four successful releases, she came up with the single ‘Me na fallin’ featuring Swiss Reggae Band Open Season in 2018. This is a powerful song that talks about the energy and the will of a young woman to face life with self-awareness and confidence.
Free Up
Release Date: May 29, 2020
Copyright: 2020 Samora
Total Length: 3:27
Total Tracks: 1
Format: Single
Genre: Reggae, Afrobeat
On February 7th, 2019, Samora released her versatile debut album ‘MOENGO’ at ‘Paradiso’ in Amsterdam. She would then go on to release five successful singles including ‘Keep My Fire Lit’ and ‘One And Only’. Her latest release is called ‘Free Up’. It is a powerful and motivational Reggae tune that came out as the first single of the riddim selection ‘Female Reggae Voices’. This project album will be out in the summer of 2020. One more time Samora shows her versability and makes proof of her stunning and colorful voice and her talent for motivational messages.
Samora is the newest reggae sensation with thick compelling grooves. But it sounds different from the average reggae works: Her solid new reggae sound features dancehall, modern soul, funk and pop, with which she appeals to a wide audience. Nor is she afraid of experimenting with raw edges in the development of her sound, which makes her so exciting and attractive.
Samora Interview
IRIE. You’re originally from Suriname. What was it like growing up in a musical family?
Samora. It was fun! It was lots of singing! I would listen to the family members singing, my mother, my aunties, and my uncles, everyone around me showed this love for music. So I could learn a lot from them and I think I also got my enthusiasm for music like this. They would sing a lot of Gospel and Soul music. I think the whole family is a fan of Whitney Houston or Céline Dion… So there was lots of that kind of music besides the Gospel songs.
IRIE. Was music something you wanted to pursue on your own?
Samora. Yes, always, I was something like 5 years old when I knew I wanted to make music and nothing else. So it is something I have always wanted and since then I worked hard for reaching this goal although everyone told me not to do it. They would tell me to sing in church because for them singing was maybe a hobby but nothing for a living. I was basically the first one in the family asking: «Who wants to sing in front of the church? I want to have concerts, I want to do festivals and do tours!» So, in the beginning, my family was not quite supportive when it came to that. They really had to understand it and accept it, that music is what I wanted to do as a living.
IRIE. You moved to Europe in 2006 to start your music career. What was going through your mind as you prepared to embark on this musical journey?
Samora. Well, I thought, this is gonna be really hard. First of all, you’re moving from a Third World country to a European country with totally different rules and a mindset in how they see the world. And it was hard because I had to go through the whole immigration process, there was a lot I had to do before I could even enter a music school. And I learned that the path would not be an easy one, it is not only singing and performing and make people happy, you really have to dive deep into the music industry and learn everything about music, how to build a band, find producers, learn about marketing and so on… So the pieces of the puzzle definitely started falling into place when I came to Europe…
IRIE. Who were some of the musical influences that helped shape you into the reggae artist you are today?
Samora. Oh, I have such a wide influence when it comes to music… I always loved a rebellion type of music and songs, I was impressed by Shaggy, Diana King, Patra, Shabba Ranks, Beenie Man, and Buju Banton, just to name a few. When you hear a lot of Gospel music day in and day out, these energetic, uplifting and powerful songs and the feeling of freedom they give you, make this kind of music very attractive. And it was more the sound that attracted me, you want to stand up and dance to the music instantly, as a young girl you don’t really listen to the words yet.
So to be honest and to give an example, in the beginning, I was not that much of a Bob Marley kind of fan, only later, when I started listening to his lyrics when words became more important to me, I connected a lot more to Marley’s music and the way he used words and told stories touched me unexpectedly…
IRIE. Where do you get your inspiration for your songs? Is it important that each song has an important meaning behind it?
Samora. I think it is definitely important that my songs have a deeper meaning, that they have a message. Because I really want the people not only to connect to my music but as well to the message in my songs. I want to touch my listeners on many levels. The inspiration for my songs is my daily life! There is so much going on around me, there is so much happening in 24 hours a day in my life, so I am reflecting things I hear and see. Sometimes I have to let something out, steam, anger, but I also want to share happiness and gratitude… And when I’m looking at myself I try to see how I can break patterns, how can I change this and move on a higher level. And I hope that my music can be an inspiration for other people as well!
So music touches a certain emotion and most of the time when I get a new instrumental I don’t plan to sing about a certain subject, I just follow the beat, the melody until a certain room in myself opens up and lets ideas pop and spread out. So something I wanted to talk about transforms into music…
IRIE. You released your first album, Moengo, in 2019. What was the experience like for you? Is there a track on the album that resonates most with you?
Samora. First of all one of my dreams was to have my album release in the ‘Paradiso’, a beautiful and renowned venue in Amsterdam. So the fact that I could do my album release there felt like a big accomplishment already. Besides that, the whole building was full, more people came to the show than I expected, I sold a bunch of CDs! So yes, I was really happy, everything was well organized, the band played well. This album release was an opening for 2019 which was a beautiful year with lots of nice shows in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium and a year with a lot of nice experiences…
I love lots of my tracks, it is my art and I am sensitive when it comes to that. And I am a Gemini, so there are days I like this special track and the next day it is another one! But two songs I really keep liking and loving a lot from that album are ‘Me Na Fallin’ and ‘Over and Over’ because both songs were written in a heavy time of my life and they gave me a lot of strength.
IRIE. Do you remember the first time you ever performed on stage?
Samora. Yes, I do! I was 4 years old and it was on Carneval day. All the kids who were there had to show their talents. So I took the mic and just started singing… And I remember I won the price! So this was definitely a good experience, of course. But still, I kept on having nervous moments every time I would stand in front of an audience and sing… Only when I grew older, maybe at the age of 12 I started really enjoying these moments without fear.
IRIE. You just released ‘Free Up’. Can you tell us the meaning behind the song?
Samora. This song has to do with mental boundaries you’re making for yourself. You want to love but you’re always angry at someone else, you say the world is perfect but at the same time, you’re still complaining. So it is a song that should remind you to let go of patterns that keep you down, that you should let go of bad habits, that you should see the positive aspects in life and not focus too much on the negative things. A lot of people are not even aware that they are stuck in these patterns. So yes, it is a song that wants to show you that you have to free your mind, open up, stop complaining. Because I think that by freeing up yourself you can definitely reach more in life…
IRIE. Can you share with us your involvement with Female Reggae Voices
Samora. Yes, this beautiful project was initiated by a member of Open Season, a Swiss band I collaborated with back in 2018 on a tour with the same name – Female Reggae Voices. Res Staudenmann is guitar player for Open Season and he started the project of a juggling album, a riddim selection, with a riddim we played during the shows in 2018 as well. The idea of this album that will be released in summer 2020 is giving female Reggae artists more recognition, to come together on one album in order to support each other and to reach a wider audience. Because it is a fact that the Reggae scene is still quite dominated by men, even if artists like Koffee and Lila Iké are also starting to bring a change…
IRIE. Are there any artists or bands that you would like to collaborate with?
Samora. There are so many! But I would definitely love to work with artists like Stefflon Don, Stonebwoy, or Sean Paul… I love their energy and style a lot, they’re cool, yes!
IRIE. What do you hope your fans and first-time listeners take with them after listening to your music?
Samora. I just hope that they feel empowered, that they see the world in all of its beautiful colors. I hope my music brings a shift in the way someone is feeling, that it is removing that negative parts that you’re carrying inside of you, like: “Today I can do it!”
IRIE. Is there anything you would like to share with our audience?
Samora. Well I am very grateful for this interview, and I hope especially for the first-time listeners that they like my music and my messages, that they follow me and support me because I love to share good vibes and good energy. There are lots of ideas in my head and there will definitely be fresh and new music out quite soon. And I also love to connect to my fans and get some of this energy back from the audience. Because it’s the people that bring me where I am so – yes – I would like to say ‘Thank you’ for everyone joining me on my path and for every experience that brings me further…
IRIE. Much love and Respect, Samora!
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LISTEN to IRIE on Spotify Playlist | IRIE on SPOTIFY – June 2020
LISTEN to Samora on Spotify | Samora on SPOTIFY
