For Amana Melome’, returning to music has meant returning to herself. After stepping away from touring to embrace motherhood, visual art and personal reflection, the international singer-songwriter has emerged with a renewed sense of identity, self-trust and creative freedom, a journey captured on her recent album Recalibration.
Now, she takes that evolution further with RECALIBRATED: THE REMIXES, arriving September 25 via Perpetual Bloom Records. Leading the project is ‘Con C.Alma (Dub Reggae Remix)’, a hypnotic collaboration with Argentinian duo Somos Animales that blends warm dub rhythms with Amana’s soulful, jazz-inflected vocals and message of trusting your intuition.
Born in Germany, raised across Italy and the United States, and now based in Spain, Amana’s genre-fluid sound reflects a life shaped by different cultures alongside an extraordinary jazz heritage. Her grandfather, legendary bassist Jimmy Woode, performed with Duke Ellington, while music has continued throughout generations of her family.
Ahead of the new release and live dates across Italy, Spain and Portugal this October, we caught up with Amana to discuss motherhood, intuition, her musical heritage, redefining success and embracing every side of herself as she prepares to shine at “full volume.”
You describe this chapter as a “recalibration”. What did you feel you needed to change or reconnect with?
I feel that although this chapter of recalibration has been unfolding for some years, only now, in retrospect, can I see it clearly. Ultimately, the journey has been finding the way back to my authentic self, and embodying ALL of the magic that I am (and always have been, but many pieces of this puzzle were stifled or had been put on a shelf because of circumstance or self-judgment). I truly believe we are all on a similar journey, throughout this thing called life (as Prince put it), but each finding our way home to ourselves in our own timing! Recalibrating with every revelation and every decision we make, giving or taking the oars, as we row our own boat, for we ARE the dream! I had to come into fully seeing myself and knowing my worth! As a woman, as an artist, in everything that I am – no longer being shy with the awesome sauce I bring to the table haha! THAT is what I had to reconnect with!
You stepped away from touring to focus on motherhood and visual art. How did that time away from music change you as an artist?
Motherhood activated superpowers I never knew possible. An expansion of the heart, super senses (I can hear a drop of a pin from three floors upstairs), mastering how to hold tight and still let go enough to allow my daughter to fly on her own! I returned to painting because my daughter could sleep in her kangaroo pouch while I painted! The more constant care for someone else became my life, the more it became obvious I needed to lock into better self-care routines and show up for myself, which became yoga, breath work, painting and dance! The deeper I delved into these and how and why they lit me up in different ways, the more I actively started working on myself from the inside out. My album Recalibration reflects this journey of anchoring my peace from within, riding out the darkness that comes and goes, celebrating self, and gratitude for being on this fascinating journey full of twists and turns. I have a very dynamic voice, and in the past I had been guided to kind of pick a direction musically and stick with that to not confuse people. I’m literally here to be a glitch in the matrix lol! Coming back to singing has me rooted in my full essence, in my truest voice, louder, stronger and unapologetic, as I re-introduce myself to the world.
Do you think stepping back can sometimes be the most powerful way to move forward?
Absolutely yes! We get to see the big picture more clearly, and can choose how we want to proceed onto what’s next. What colours do I want to paint this next chapter in? How do I want to show up to the world and for myself? Then, CON C. ALMA, anchored in the trust that what is meant for you will not miss you, so trust the timing; we can dance back into a groove at our own pace and flourish into the next level of ourselves!
You’ve lived across Germany, Italy, Sweden, the US and Spain. How have those different cultures shaped your identity and creative expression?
They definitely have added some ingredients to my secret sauce of expression. I grew up listening to lots of hip hop and R&B, then we moved to Italy, and suddenly Guns’n’ Roses and Eric Clapton were the constant amongst my peers, as well as some Italian artists. The constant thread of influence was always my family’s favourite music though! It was very varied and always playing in our home. Of course, lots of jazz was always on in the house, some of my grandmother’s favourites like Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughn. My mom gravitated towards soulful classic voices like Donny Hathaway and Bill Withers, as well as lots of world music like Angelique Kidjo, Cesaria Evora and Manu Chao! So to sum it up, my musical identity has been shaped by ALL kinds of music from most corners of the world, and will always have the common denominator of the deep jazz heritage in my blood. The flamenco rhythms I’m experiencing now that I’m living here in Spain have definitely been inspiring some vibes for a future project! Stay tuned!
You come from a remarkable jazz lineage. How does your family’s musical history influence the artist you are today?
Many have asked me if I feel like I was forced into a jazz box, musically, since I come from a jazz family. I never have; the jazziness that I bring is truly something that seeps out of my pores naturally. Although my grandfather [Jimmy Woode] rose to the highest levels of fame in the family, being part of Duke Ellington’s band, and having people like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong in his circle, my grandmother was a fabulous jazz singer and tap dancer as well! I feel I connect to their spirits when I sing. Being live on stage takes me to an alternate dimension where I can soar, spread my wings, trust my inner knowing and flow on the music that supports me as I soar.
I remember having a family listening party of my first album (Indigo Red), with my grandfather sitting in front of me, in his home…I was very nervous of his judgment because he was a musical heavyweight, you know? Mr Jazz! And I “didn’t know (the math of) what I was doing!” …supposedly. He, my mother, my aunt and I listened through the album in silence, after which he burst out clapping and stood up! “Where did this come from?!?!?! FANTASTIC,” he screamed! I was so proud that I blew his mind most unexpectedly! That, for example, was a big moment of recalibrating into the “I am a worthy musician, even though I don’t have the math” – which allowed for more weight in my self-trust from within. My musical heritage (my birth father and my mother are also musicians!) always was and always will be a wonderful part of my expression that I am so thankful for!
What does femininity and self-expression mean to you in this new era of your career?
Confidence! Unapologetic expression of ALL of myself! Permission to celebrate myself and pat my own back! Wear the dress, do the dance, don’t care about what others think! I permit myself to SHINE at FULL volume! I am about to release an album of remixes from Recalibration, and I decided to give new life to the very first song I had ever recorded: Space Age Mama Jama! I feel like I am finally embodying this magical badass in all of her essence, now! (over 10 years later) She is fierce, she is sassy, playful, loud and growls and dances like flames of a fire! Same song, totally different ME! I felt like that was a perfect exclamation mark to the full circle of recalibration! The album is called RECALIBRATED [coming September 25, 2026], the final station of the chapter, as the Recalibration dust is settling.
How do you tell the difference between intuition and fear or self-doubt?
Allowing myself to pause and take a step back to assess: is this true to MY energy or is it coming from another source (them/something external)? Fear and self-doubt can shut us down easily, and by observing times when I felt paralysed, overwhelmed, shut down or simply stuck in a procrastination zone, I forced myself to literally have the conversation with myself, in meditation (visualising sitting across from myself, or sometimes my inner child) and figuring out the source (or trigger), so it can be alchemised (recalibrated) and we can move through and forward, onward and upward. Of course not everything is clearly black or white; there’s plenty of grey area, but even when we fall and feel like perhaps that was the wrong decision, I feel it’s important to always give ourselves some grace and anchor ourselves in love, so we may continue to trust ourselves.
In a culture that encourages constant productivity and visibility, what does slowing down and being present mean to you?
It means giving myself permission to do my thing in my very own way, and relaxing into the idea that my “success” doesn’t have to look like your “success”. My wins don’t depend on algorithms and numbers; I am an influencer of hearts and aim to spark something beautiful in the Souls of real people, be it 5 people at a time or millions; it’s a glow that spreads as we connect in our oneness! Slowing down and being present looks like deciding to take summer vacation with my family this summer, instead of obsessing about filling the summer performing at jazz festivals as I have in the past, since that is the expected trajectory because I recently released a new album. My choice to be an independent artist is also a conscious decision, so I call my own shots and need not answer to any other person or box (or schedule) they could try to squish me into. I have found an awe-inspiring flow in slowing down to smell the flowers along the way, making time to go ground my toes in the sand at the beach between meetings and enjoying every step of the way as I am jumping back into the music world, at my own slow, joyous, present, fabulous pace!
If this era is about returning to yourself, who is Amana returning to?
Returning to the ME I have always been, but now the blinders have been stripped away, and I can see myself fully and embody my Magic!! Unapologetic, standing strong and understanding the strength that vulnerability and softness hold, as I flow in my full expression! Gone are the fears about being too much, or too many things, too “alternative” or shining too bright!
My name translates from Swahili to Peaceful Star (thank you, mom). I am finally embodying my true self, and I’m SO excited to be here!