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Samia Malik

Reviews

'(With) her brilliant third album Azaadi: Freedom, Samia’s voice now has a new strength and conviction. Her presence on stage together with projections of her own visual art is tremendously powerful and inspiring.  Her feminist message has become a strong uplifting current, embracing our pain, sorrow, and anger. Samia frames these songs, however, in a broader perception of struggle: at a time when women the world over are facing an onslaught of intensified patriarchal violence and oppression, these iconic songs are needed to heal and empower us too.

The haunting melody of Samia’s voice with its deep sense of longing, the originality and sensitivity of her lyrics...at last, a British Asian musician able not only to write songs and sing in Urdu and English, but to combine a powerful performance in English with an uncompromisingly South Asian sensibility...implicitly challenging the stereotypes which so often shape the way South Asians are represented.' Read More

Amrit Wilson  - writer and activist on issues of race and gender in Britain and South Asian politics.

 

Samia Malik's songs and the rendition could not be more relevant to the here and now. What is a woman's place? Cultural identity. Whose cultural identity? Experts talk of "fusion"…but no-one's seen fusion like this’

Janet Trewin - Future Radio

 

‘Samia Malik, (a) singer of extraordinary power and Joan Baez-like eloquence’

Geeta Doctor - The Hindu

 

‘In a world where we are becoming more attune to divisions, Samia’s work in fact celebrates difference, individualism and originality’ Aisha Farooq - DESIblitz

 

'Standout tracks’ are ‘truly moving original Urdu ghazals saturated with birha – melancholic longing’  Amardeep Dhillon – Songlines

 

'NAC is extremely proud to support Samia: her work is simply unique. She has created something very special that I have not really encountered before. The quality of the songs and their presentation hit you from the opening number. We are feeling proud and excited to see where Samia's work goes, keep your eyes open you will not want to miss this.' Pasco-Q Kevlin | Director | Norwich Arts Centre

 

‘For over 25 years Samia Malik has shown that music can be healing as well as entertaining. Azaadi: Freedom charts a compelling journey towards liberation through powerful Urdu and English songs, art and spoken word’

Sarah Albinali - Eastern Eye

 

‘Passionate and easily understood across international frontiers’  The Asian Times

 

‘Samia Malik’s singing in Urdu is gorgeous, as are her melodies, but gorgeous though these are her writing is even more striking. She writes in the Urdu tradition of sung poetry and takes it to completely new territory by giving voice to her own and possibly a generation of Asian women’s experience in Britain. It is wonderfully powerful writing’ Alan Scott - Resonance

 

‘A sensual and melodic sound that touches the soul’

Debjani Chatterjee & Brian D’Arcy - Writing in Education

 

‘A vivid fusion of mystical poetry, liberationist politics and deep trance grooves, one of those magic projects that grow in intensity with every listen’

David Lewis - Exclaim

 

‘A wake up call’ Sarwar Kashari - Kashmir Images

 

‘Beautifully played and finely written’ Simon Hopkins – Motion

 

‘Renditions in both English and Urdu capture in poignant writing the struggle faced by women’ The Daily Jang