BLU SAMU

The fruit tree called Stikstof, which was planted long ago, just keeps on bearing delicious fruit. Take this, for instance: BLU SAMU, an absolute gem about whom we’ve been shouting so loudly for so long that she’s set to break through internationally, that our ear, nose and throat specialist, following a previous ‘Say AAA’ examination, begged us to rein in our enthusiasm a little. Now, let’s put that ‘Stikstof’ reference into perspective: Blu Samu may well have scored a minor hit with Zwangere Guy (‘Mershedeïz’, another seven years ago now), but it is mainly on her own terms, from the city of cookies and also from Portugal, that her rise has been proceeding in fits and starts since 2017 (see her splendid single ‘I run’ from that year). Other companions she encountered along the way: Le 77, with whom she once caused such a ruckus in our Club back in 2018 that the venue itself only just managed to avoid a complete collapse. This year it’s finally all happening for real, because after a series of singles and EPs, her full album ‘(K)NOT’ is finally available everywhere it should be: in record shops and on the platform with the green icon. The domestic (online) press is throwing around superlatives as if they were water balloons filled with holy water.  We, the wise old council of the Lokerse Feesten, are, however, much more down-to-earth: after listening to it together a few times in our offices, we eventually started ticking boxes for every genre we heard, and then again for every standout track we came across.  There was some debate, but we’ve counted around 8 genres and 11 standout tracks. Just to be clear: eleven – that’s the number of songs on the album. The concert at the Botanique in March this year was one that had the Van Dale lexicographers complaining afterwards: the list of superlatives turned out to be completely exhausted. We’ll certainly come up with a few new ones once her performance at our Club on our already legendary Thursday, 6 August, is over.