Karima Santi's obsession with Sade is immediately clear in her new music. Although the Austin-based songwriter grew up splitting time between West Africa, Europe, and the US, it was her family’s deep love for music that kept her grounded. Her parents were brought together by the Peace Corps in Niger, and Santi grew up listening to their eclectic collection of CDs. Their anthology of Sade’s albums were her favorite, and Santi connected deeply with the works of a sensitive artist who’s childhood was also split between two diametrically opposed worlds.

By the time Santi began studying classical piano at age 8, she had absorbed music from across the globe, and showed an early talent for composing. By the time she picked up a guitar at 14, Santi was writing songs that defied genre as much as her ancestry did. Struggling with the feeling of never fitting in, Santi bounced around from band to band early in her music career, performing punk rock one night and neo soul the next.

It wasn’t until moving to Austin that Santi found a band that finally stuck. After teaming up with Texas State-trained jazz guitarist Ibra Martinez and UT-trained jazz bassist Taylor Turner, Santi finally found her sound. She won a grant from the Austin Live Music Fund in 2024 and decided to produce a record herself with engineering support from Austin Sisler of East Side Studios. Using her favorite Sade records as reference tracks, Santi guided her band towards an ambitious vision: building a romantic dream world of sound. With all vocal production completed solo in her walk-in closet, the tracks possess an intimate, fragile quality certainly inspired by Sade, but never stolen.

Santi’s delicate vocals and lyrical themes reveal a soft power and artistic depth that cannot be manufactured. Second only to music is Santi’s love of old movies, and her upcoming album ‘Royale’ betrays her ambition to re-write Old Hollywood classics from a black feminine perspective. Each track on the record transports listeners into a movie scene where they are the main character: caught in the throes of romance, breathless hear to what Santi drops next.