“I’m coming back with the confidence of knowing who I am.” As the profile of Sampa The Great has soared internationally in recent years, the woman behind the musical force was on a journey all her own. For Sampa Tembo, the fusion of her artistry and the perception of the public was one that forced her to face the anxieties and the identity challenges that only moving back home has managed to heal.
This recent sense of liberation and rediscovery has seen Sampa The Great engage in some of her most revealing and creatively stimulating music yet. Where her catalogue-defining earlier work still exists as legacy building pieces that she remains fiercely proud of, Sampa now finds herself creative from a place of pure happiness and peace.
“There’s no fear in standing in my identity, for fear that I wouldn’t be claimed at home. That’s finished. The two years have really healed that bit of me that was unsure, or felt like I didn't belong. That’s gone.”