Kenya’s Sofiya Nzau Is Ready to Introduce Herself

Every month, OkayAfrica spotlights an exceptional African artist shaping African music and culture. From rising stars shaping new sounds to established artists driving culture forward, this series gives us a stage to celebrate incredible, ingenious African artistry.

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Sofiya Nzau still marvels at crowds around the world singing her songs back to her, often without understanding the Kikuyu lyrics.

Recently back in Nairobi after touring in Europe, the Kenyan singer-songwriter tells OkayAfrica that with dance music, the feeling often matters more than the words.

“The drop will come and everyone will be jumping,” she says. Take “Wacuka,” her collaboration with German EDM producer AVAION, a song about heartbreak and betrayal that sends audiences into a joyful frenzy.

“It's not even about the story,” she explains. “It's about the feeling that they are getting out of the song.”

It's been a meteoric rise for Nzau, whose 2023 hit “Mwaki,” with Brazilian producer Zerb, introduced her mesmering voice and Kikuyu lyrics to dance floors around the world. The song has amassed more than 440 million Spotify streams, and she's since become a darling of international dance music producers, collaborating with names including Bob Sinclar, Topic and PLS&TY. In 2025, she became the first Kenyan artist to perform atTomorrowland festival, joining Steve Aoki onstage. According to music analytics platform Soundcharts, Nzau ranks as Kenya's most-listened-to artist on Spotify, with approximately 5.7 million monthly listeners.

Despite becoming a distinctive presence in global dance music, relatively little is known about the woman behind the voice.

“I actually feel like people actually don't really know who I am,” she says. “I feel like I haven't really showcased myself without someone behind me or someone before me. It's always been a collaboration... so it's not really Sofiya.”

Her forthcoming debut album, Nano, offers an opportunity to change that. After years of contributing her vocals and songwriting to other artists' projects, Nzau is preparing to show the breadth of her artistry, with greater control over the music she creates and the collaborators she chooses.

“I've worked on this album from 2023 up to now. I've gone through so many different seasons, so it's like a compilation of different seasons, and that's why I called it Nano,” she says, explaining that the title loosely translates to a form of narration in Kikuyu. “It's like I'm narrating my different seasons with this one album.”

Finding Her Sound

Nzau says Nano builds on her dance music foundations while exploring a wider range of sounds. Her recent collaborations offer a glimpse of that versatility. She joined Nigerian star Yemi Alade and fellow Kenyan singer Njerae on “Earth Song,” from Alade's latest album, and ventured into Bongo Flava alongside Tanzania's Harmonize on “Loser.”

With Nano, she hopes to push those boundaries further while giving audiences a fuller picture of her artistry.

“I have so much to give, and I don't want to lose that so that I can fit in in one box,” she says. “I was very intentional in saying that for these specific songs [on the album], I don't want anybody in them. I feel like this is a story I want to tell by myself.”

Kikuyu remains at the heart of her songwriting. Having grown up speaking the language in central Kenya, Nzau acknowledges that writing in English would mean relying more heavily on other songwriters. Instead, she writes her own lyrics while drawing on international collaborators for melodies and different musical influences.

“I chose to write in Kikuyu, but I'm using songwriters from Europe because I need that niche of melody that is commercial in their places,” she explains. “Language is not a barrier because I'm using people who don't even understand what I'm writing. We are working together, and it's possible.”

With Nano, she's also experiencing a new level of creative freedom. “I felt like for once I have a say. I'm in control of these beautiful songs,” she says. “When you're doing a collaboration with someone, you can give them the vocals, and then when they give you back the song, it's a whole different song. But it's their song. That's how they like the song. So you don't have much say.”

That control extends to production, with Nzau sometimes asking producers to rework tracks until they match her vision. She's equally deliberate about the album's release. With roughly 18 tracks in the works, she is holding out for a label that believes in the project and can give it the backing it needs.

“I need the right person to release this,” she says. “I don't want to just release it because I have to release an album.”

The Hustle And The Homecoming

That determination extends beyond the studio. Naturally reserved, Nzau is learning to work a room. She was recently at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE)--the world's largest annual electronic music conference and club festival–where she pushed herself to meet as many people as possible. For her, it's the muscle and hustle that began when she sold vocals and songwriting to producers online.

She keeps songs and ideas ready to pitch whenever an opportunity arises. It's how “Makuhia,” her collaboration with Skyla Tylaa, eventually reached American singer Chlöe Bailey. Her take: keep shopping your songs until something bites.

“You will send the song to someone and they don't respond to you, and it's okay. You're not entitled to them,” she says. “You go to the next person. You go to the next person ... You just shop the song. You shop the song without any shame and without giving up.”

The opportunities are taking her around the world, exposing her to new cultures and audiences that she hopes will help her grow as an artist. She dreams of bigger stages and perhaps even Grammy recognition. Yet there's one thing about her increasingly international career that's surprised her.

“I hate traveling,” she admits, something she's only recently come to fully recognize. “I think I just miss home so much.”

She's even suggested to her husband, who is also her manager, that she'd happily return to Nairobi for a couple of days between performances. She misses her African tea, githeri and good avocados, but especially time with her five-year-old daughter.

On the day of our interview, they'd made popcorn with cardamom, closed the curtains and watched a movie together. With her travel schedule growing increasingly demanding over the next few months as she tours Africa, Australia and Asia, Nzau wants to make those moments count.

“Just being present when I can, just spending time with her so that she won't miss those moments that much.”