featured image: Photo credit – Sophie Paris
OUT OCTOBER 5TH THROUGH [PIAS]
HEADLINE SHOW MAY 25TH 2024 @ TOLHUISTUIN, AMSTERDAM TICKETS ON SALE – HERE
PRAISE FOR NEOMI
“Intricate, intimate, texturally spare, lyrically observational and arresting, the six songs are like snapshots that capture your attention and draw you in.” – SUNDAY TIMES ‘Breaking Act’
“néomí has shared a beautiful, introspective release “skipping stone”. From the raw lyricism to the artist’s somber delivery and angelic harmonies, this release is just as captivating as its storyline.”– THE LINE OF BEST FIT
“a folksy beauty in the school of For Emma, Forever Ago or even Ben Howard’s Every Kingdom. Folk songwriting at its finest complete with spine-tingling ‘oohs’ and a mellow guitar solo.” – GIGWISE
“Singer/songwriter néomí dives into the heartbreak, the healing, and everything else that went into her breathtakingly vulnerable and beautifully raw sophomore EP ‘after.'” – ATWOOD MAGAZINE
“Recording under the moniker néomí, Speelman crafts soul-stirring chamber pop and ethereal folk”– UNDER THE RADAR
“Harnessing her vocal power and injecting her inherent talent for hooking you in with the winding narratives, néomí is an artist who deserves to be noticed and adored.”– EARMILK
Following on from the release of her stunning second EP ‘after’ in April this year, which found support with the likes of the Sunday Times (Breaking Act), The Independent (Spotlight Artist), The Line of Best Fit, NOTION, Songwriting Magazine, WONDERLAND, Record of the Day to name just a few, néomí, aka Surinamese/Dutch folk-pop singer-songwriter Neomi Speelman, has now returned to deliver her emotive new single “your girl“.
Adopting a more euphoric dream-pop-inspired aesthetic this time around, “your girl” sees her step away from the acoustic-led direction she has been building these last few years. As she prepares for the release of her long-awaited debut album in 2024, we are seeing the first snippets of where she plans to take her distinctive sound next.
Adding about “your girl”, she said, “‘your girl’ has more meaning than just a simple ‘this is what the song is about’. For the first time I’ve started to write music not from a place of sadness, but a place of anger. It has a lot to do with my personal growth as a human being and therefore as an artist.
“‘your girl’ is about people (whether known personally to you or not) painting a picture ‘you’ using their own words, their stories, their interpretation of who they think you are today, or you should be tomorrow or how you were in the past. It is about realising that you are no longer playing yourself in your own ‘movie’ but instead find yourself trying to fulfil how others see you in their own ‘movie’. You lose yourself to another ‘you’ and become another character because of that. I noticed I was playing up to a character of how others around me saw me and had to work very hard to find myself again.
“Of course, would it be a néomí song without a bit of love? Haha. I was hurt by a loved one, and watched as that person hurt someone they love and visa versa.
“So there you go: I’ve got another love song for you. Again, the song is more than just that, to me it has different layers so I’m not sure more words would help, just listen and find out yourself what you feel. Maybe one day we can talk about it 🙂 “
néomí is the moniker for folk-pop singer-songwriter Neomi Speelman who writes authentic and sincere stories backed by dreamy soundscapes inspired by the classic folk songwriters, old and new alike.
Although born in The Netherlands, Neomi is half Dutch/Surinamese after her mother moved from Suriname as a child. As a youngster, Neomi’s first step into music didn’t exactly start on the right foot when she was told she had to attend piano tuitions. It was agreed that Neomi would attend the lessons for 5 years and afterwards she could decide whether to continue or not. Nevertheless 5 years passed and the unimpressed Neomi quit the piano and vowed never to play music again.
4 years would float by until Neomi would find herself at a musical junction. During a browse on a popular Internet video website she stumbled across a live video of Ben Howard performing ‘Old Pine‘ with a cellist in tow. Spellbound and inspired, Neomi came out of her musical retirement, picked up a guitar and began teaching herself how to play from online tutorials.
As her skill and confidence grew, Neomi applied to music schools and, due to an administrative error, was invited to audition in Amsterdam. Despite being too young to apply, she was offered a place at the school based on her raw talent and potential. Over the next 4 years she would hone her songwriting and sound, her main influences stemming between Bon Iver, Bob Dylan, and her hero Ben Howard. She says of the trio “their lyrics are outstanding and insanely beautiful. I dont think they make songs, but they make art, poems. That’s something I also really try to do; make little poems instead of songs.”
2020 was set to be the breakout year for néomí as she recorded her first singles with British engineer/producer Edd Hartwell (Tom Walker, Birdy, Tom Odell), supported singer songwriting legend Don McLean and was also invited to the UK to play her first shows abroad. However, the out-break of a pandemic followed by a sequence of metamorphic life events scuppered these plans with néomí using the time to develop as a songwriter and add to her growing catalogue of songs.
In 2022, néomí released her debut 5 song EP ‘before‘ on June 24th via [PIAS] which has garnered over 2 million streams and 125k Spotify monthly listeners as well as landing numerous Spotify playlist support and her first global Apple Music playlists in ‘Breaking Singer/Songwriter’ and ‘New in Singer-Songwriter’. The EP has been praised by the likes of CLASH, The Independent, GIGWISE, Under The Radar, La Blogotheque, Cool Hunting, Ones To Watch, LOCK Mag, Record Of The Day (Song of the Day for each track) and many more. She supported Novo Amor, HAEVN, The Slow Show and Jonathan Jeremiah on their 2022 shows in The Netherlands and was named both OOR and 3voor12 Talent for the end of year Popronde tour. The year finished with néomí announced as one of the first acts to play ESNS along with an invite to perform on popular national TV show Top2000.
2023 started with a bang for néomí: After performing at ESNS she was voted the #5 best act of the whole festival by 3voor12 and she was awarded 3FM Talent by national radio station 3FM. The station would go on to nominate her for ‘Best Newcomer’ at their annual awards ceremony. In March néomí was invited by SYML to open on his European tour, returning to the road the following month when label mate Jonathan Jeremiah asked her to join him on 10 tour dates over Europe. Latest EP ‘after‘ was released on April 14th with néomí’s biggest headline show taking place at a sold-out Paradiso in Amsterdam on May 7th. What followed was a summer of full band festival appearances, finishing with a captivating performance at one of the Netherlands’ most prestigious festivals ‘Into The Great Wide Open’.
néomí recently announced her biggest headline show taking place on May 25th 2024 at Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam (ticket on sale here). She also recently opened for Matt Corby on a number of Dutch dates and in Paris and will play her first headline show in Belgium this December.
December 12th – AMOR, Antwerp (debut headline Belgian show)
May 25th 2024 – Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam (headline show)
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