Somi

Somi Kakoma is a Billboard charting and Grammy-nominated vocalist, composer, writer, and actor. Born in Illinois to immigrants from Uganda and Rwanda, she is known in the jazz world simply as ‘Somi’. Her fifth studio album, Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba, is a companion project to the critically acclaimed original Off-Broadway musical “Dreaming Zenzile” that Somi both wrote and starred in. Prior to Zenzile and at the height of the 2020 global lockdown, Somi released an unplanned live album called Holy Room featuring the Frankfurt Radio Big Band that ultimately earned her a 2021 Grammy® nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album and made her the first African woman ever nominated in any of the Grammy® jazz categories.
Somi is a recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award, two NAACP Image Awards for Best Vocal Jazz Album, and the inaugural Jazz Music Award for Best Vocal Performance. She is also a Soros Equality Fellow, a United States Artist Fellow, a TED Senior Fellow, a Sundance Theatre Fellow, and the founder of Salon Africana. Somi recently made her acting debut on Broadway in the titular role of the TONY Award winning play “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”.

She holds degrees in Cultural Anthropology and African Studies from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master’s degree in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. In her heart of hearts, she is an East African Midwestern girl who loves family, poetry, and freedom.