Little Simz today releases her highly anticipated sixth album, Lotus, via AWAL Recordings. LISTEN HERE.

At 13-tracks long, Lotus is an expansive and yet deeply personal project. It sees Little Simz bring her inner world onto record in her most intimate and most honest manner yet. Among an arresting musical backdrop guided by producer Miles Clinton James – which combines influences from Punk to Jazz, Soul to Samba – is a weaving of rich stories and vivid vignettes. Together, they tell an emotive story about the woman and artist Simz has become.

The title itself, Lotus, embodies renewal and growth, mirroring Simz ever evolving artistry and the album’s thematic voyage through life’s intricate phases. Among these roaming reflections are the tenderness of love, the sting of betrayal, the paralysing grip of fear, the depressions of self-doubt, and the light that cracks through the darkness when breakthrough and liberation arrive.

Lotus was preceded by three singles which began to reveal the scope and breadth of the album; the punk-spirited playfulness of ‘Young’ and its barnstorming video directed by Dave Meyers, the lushly cinematic ‘Free’, an exploration of the dualities of love and fear, and the powerful and foreboding ‘Flood’, accompanied by a visionary visual by Salomon Ligthelm.

Lotus features an impeccably curated list of collaborators; Moses Sumney, Miraa May,  Wretch 32,  Cashh,  Michael Kiwanuka,  Yussef Dayes,  Sampha,  Lydia Kitto, Yukimi Nagano, Obongjayar and Moonchild Sanelly .

Little Simz is a boundary-breaking musician and cultural curator, recognised as one of the UK’s most captivating and visionary artists. A multi-award winner – collecting Brit Awards, MOBOs, and an Ivor Novello – across mixtapes, EPs, and five critically acclaimed albums, Simz’ music documents her story, her journey, her becoming – and in turn, her generation.

2021’s Mercury Music Prize–winning record Sometimes I Might Be Introvert catapulted Simz into the top five of the UK Official Albums Chart, followed by 2022’s surprise release NO THANK YOU, a record at once deeply honest and utterly propulsive. In 2023, she continued to carve her own lane as an acclaimed actor, returning in the final series of the Netflix drama Top Boy. Little Simz’s 2024 performance on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage further defined her reputation as an inimitable live performer and one of the most celebrated British artists. Across her catalogue of music and as a featured artist, Little Simz’ global streams stand at over 1 billion.

The Southbank Centre announced Little Simz as the curator of the 30th edition of its iconic contemporary music festival, Meltdown. Joining a list of previous curators that includes some of the world’s most famous artists, Simz has curated a boundary-breaking lineup for the 11-day festival,  from June 12-22. Artists performing include The Streets, Sasha Keable, Lola Young, Ghetts and Jon Batiste. Little Simz rounds off the festival, playing alongside Southbank Centre Resident Chineke! Orchestra,  which sold out within hours.

Little Simz is an artist whose creative ambition continues to grow and expand. Lotus is created in this ethic. There is a sense of range and fullness to what is her most daring and creative album yet. Listen in full now.