Meet Salma

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Salma a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Salma, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

My purpose found me, really. As far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted to sing. Some of my earliest memories are of being in nursery, singing along to the Spice Girls (and my teachers calling me the sixth spice) and Boney M (I knew the lyrics of many of their songs thanks to my mum’s love of Motown that she shared with me). I remember when I was about 8 years old, I wrote my first full song, where I had used My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion as an example of song structure and also for inspiration (I had also performed it at my first talent show around that time – I was clearly obsessed!). It was after a few bereavements in the family and it was written with the intention to comfort them from the grief. That was when I felt how powerful music could really be in not just expressing myself, but sending a message and helping others. It had felt like the most natural and easy thing to do, and it’s felt that way ever since.

Music is the one thing in my life that I never went looking for or had to work hard at trying to uncover and discover. It’s also a really good benchmark for when I work on anything else in my life – I ask myself, does this make me feel the same way I do as when I’m working on music? Does it move me in the same way? I’m someone with a lot of interests and have picked up a lot of creative and vocational pursuits, but nothing ever stuck the way music did, like when I studied Law at uni because I was certain that I also wanted to work in human rights. I always say that music to me is like the film Jumanji – the drumming in my heart won’t stop until I give it my full attention and play the game. All roads always led me back to my music, to where I am today, and I feel really blessed in that way.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m a British-Sudanese alt-R&B artist from West London and I write my music from the heart and experiences, with the purpose of translating my inner world for myself and the hope that I connect with the inner worlds of others. Though a lot of my music centres on common themes like love, loss and identity, it’s all manifested in different ways, whether that’s my diss track on a drill beat for UNFORGIVING (LOOK AT YOU) released on Valentine’s Day last year or a softer piece like If Only. I’m an alt-R&B artist – heavy on the alt.

As an independent artist, I’ve had the gift of freedom with my creative expression and experimenting with different sounds – to find the fun in play – which has led me to working with many incredible engineers and producers, and I’m excited to share that I’ll be releasing my debut EP in spring 2026, which will include work from these collaborations.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Firstly, self confidence & resilience (sorry I cheated and mashed two together) – it’s hard to build and takes time, but is what will help you block out any self-doubt you may have or any external negative comments, and will keep you in the bubble of enjoying where you’re at. A trick I picked up from TikTok recently is if I ever have even a tiny bit of self-doubt, I will outloud say “Guards! Take it away!” haha, it’s weird but it’s fun and it works. Next up is knowledge of the mechanics outside of being an artist and my craft – social media management, project and time management, tour and show management etc. Whilst I was working a full time job at a creative agency as a project manager, I learned a hell of a lot about social media like paid promotion, how google ads manager works, audience targeting, content scheduling and all those detailed pieces that are key to promoting the art you’ve just made. Being a project manager also helped a great deal with work and time management, planning my work schedules and working efficiently with other people. In the music industry, and creative industry in general, structure and time management is more of a nice concept than a non-negotiable, the way it would be in a typical 9-5, so it’s helped me with my own self-discipline but to also work well with others and be a reliable, trustworthy person that finds others who are the same. Finally, but most importantly, my faith in God is the number one thing that helps me push past any uncertainty and steers me clear of self-doubt.

My advice to any artist early in their journey would be to always remember their why. Why are you doing this? Do you love it and are you having fun? Always come back to that. There will be days where it will be hard, the algorithm will feel like it woke up hating you for no reason, but as long as you remember your why, you’ll keep it pushing. Trust me, it’ll be worth it. And also, if you can, learn the foundational basics of the how – how your music is made, how it’s engineered, how they filmed that one reference video you have for your visualiser, how that website has been set up etc etc – all of this will set you up to be the best at what you do and find people to work with who are the best at what they do.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

It’s All In Your Head by Russ. This is hands down the most impactful book I’ve ever read in my journey as an artist and has helped me so much. I always recommend it to other artists and I actually can’t remember how many times I’ve re-read it. I have it as an audiobook too for when I’m on the go, if I ever need a boost in the day to get me back into flow state. Russ is an independent artist with an incredibly inspirational story for how he came into music and became an artist and the book itself is structured into chapters titled after his songs. One of the things he talks about is the importance of following your own path and to not listen to anyone who tells you to “be realistic” – one person’s ceiling might be your floor but if you start to adopt that mindset you might not reach your full potential. It’s the art of dreaming and just how important it is to do that. Pull The Trigger is my favourite chapter – he starts it by saying “it’s natural to be hesitant when you’re standing at the edge of the cliff, and you know that in order to live a fulfilled life, you have to jump. You’re hesitant because you don’t have wings…yet. Pulling the trigger is about trusting your instincts, your gut knows what you want to do before you do.” It’s not always easy and real life things can slow us down or put a pause, like financial factors, family obligations etc, but in my opinion, it’s always key to hold on to that knowing of what it is you want, what moves you, what makes time feel like it’s standing still, and work towards that – a baby step and a leap are still forward movements.

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Image Credits

Credit for the first feature photo – Dan K

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