New Music Friday can be a lot. That's why every week we cut it down to the songs you need to hear for PLAY, our new music edit, and deliver a new cover feature to go alongside it. This week... Ama.
Ama is squeezing in a day of press ahead of an evening celebrating her self-titled new album. "I'm in New York right now," she says, "excited because I have a first-listen album event this eve!"
For the London singer-songwriter - formerly Ama Lou - the release marks another step in a career defined by an ability to turn personal experiences into sharply drawn R&B. After introducing a more vulnerable side of herself on her 2023 debut and reintroducing herself as Ama with last year's return single 'My Girl', she's now back with a new album that feels noticeably lighter on its feet than what came before.
That shift can be traced back to summer 2024, when she began work on the record with a simple objective in mind. "I just wanted the process of making music to be fun again," she explains. Whatever emerged from that mindset eventually became the album itself.

The record follows a period away from releasing music that gave her room to reassess where she wanted to go next. Time, she says, brought "perspective, as all time does", allowing her to take stock of everything. "What do I enjoy? What did I learn? What do I want to do next? What do I never want to do again? etc. lmao."
Since her debut, and since dropping the "Lou" from her name, Ama has learned to approach her own experiences with greater compassion. "I think I'm a lot kinder to myself now," she says. "I used to be my own harshest parent, but I'm much more appreciative of everything I've done and lived through now. Doing that has allowed me to be a lot more present in my own life."








