Rising pop star Zikai takes us into nostalgic adventure with a new single ‘Stay This Way‘ with JIM OUMA featuring Kes Kross
Rising pop star Zikai dives into nostalgia with her new single ‘Stay This Way’ with Jim Ouma. The new track features Kes Kross, the Roc Nation artist who has worked with everyone from Rihanna to Nile Rodgers.
The new single ‘Stay This Way’ continues Zikai’s recent rich run of form, with her classy, graceful vocal gift delivering a typically colossal hook. This time it’s the focal point of a slow-burning reflection on longing to return to a time in your life that has passed. Its airy Afropop beats are further complemented by a killer feature in the shape of Kes Kross’s charismatic delivery.
Zikai shares about the new single, “‘Stay This Way’ is about a time in my life that felt so simple and free,” says Zikai. “The song allows me to look back to a happy time that I never wanted to change. I wrote it two years ago, but it feels particularly relevant now.”
Zikai wrote the song with the track’s producers Jim Ouma (previously of NONONO, best known for their hit ‘Pumpin Blood’) as well as Kes Kross and Kinda Ingrosso.
There was a palpable African pop element too, sourced from her Ivorian father’s love of the influential Afropop favourites Magic System, plus the star quality of early 2000s MTV icons Rihanna and Omarion. It reserved a strong reaction, accumulating 8.3 million streams at Spotify and earning a Denniz Pop Award nomination for Rookie Artist / Band.
She featured on Mullally’s ‘Fire’, co-wrote ‘Hush’ for ‘Yellow Claw and Weird Genius, and joined SVEA for a new take on Rihanna’s ‘Don’t Stop The Music’.
