Artist Bio

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Karima Santi is an emerging Nigerien-American artist based in Austin, TX. In 2023, she teamed up with Grammy-nominated producer Chris "Frenchie" Smith, to record her single "Space," a surprisingly relaxed song about battling anxiety, driven by acoustic guitars and punctuated by unexpected beat drops.

Before moving to Austin in 2019, Santi performed with an eclectic mix of jazz, folk, and punk-rock bands in the Raleigh-Durham music scene, but found it challenging to find a place for her particular sound. After leaving her last band, she spent several years focused solely on songwriting and amassed hundreds of demos by the time she joined forces with Frenchie at the Bubble Studios.

In early 2024, Santi assembled a world-class team of Austin musicians at Orb Recording Studios to complete her upcoming EP, scheduled for release this summer. Her team filmed live studio performances for the final two songs on the EP. Her song “Ventana Canyon” was submitted to the 2024 NPR Tiny Desk Contest in February, and the live music video was followed by “You in 3/4 (Live)” released this April.