“THE BLOOM PROJECT” by Adai Song

With The Bloom Project, Adai Song presents an eight-track album that feels both archival and revolutionary. A Grammy consideration candidate for Best Global Music Album, the record stands as a bold feminist reinterpretation of Chinese shidaiqu, the elegant blend of Chinese folk and Western jazz that emerged in 1920s Shanghai. Reimagined through contemporary EDM, global pop structures, and traditional instrumentation, the album transforms cultural memory into a living, forward-facing statement. The project opens with “A Lost Singer,” immediately setting the album’s emotional and conceptual foundation. Rather than portraying a woman wandering in search of meaning, Adai reframes the narrative as one of self-determination. Piano and bass provide a steady emotional anchor while erhu and violin intertwine, expressing both solitude and inner strength. The arrangement feels deliberate and grounded, signaling that this album is not about nostalgia for the past, but about reclaiming it with intention and agency.

Across the record, Adai Song’s identity as a cultural bridge-builder is unmistakable. Based between NYC and Beijing, and drawing on her background as a Recording Academy member, Berklee NYC faculty, and NYFA-funded artist, she blends academic depth with pop fluency. Electronic beats, rap cadences, and club-ready rhythms coexist with guzheng, pipa, and other traditional instruments, creating a sound that feels globally fluent without losing its cultural specificity. Production plays a crucial role in shaping the album’s impact. Led by Adai and supported by an international team of Berklee alumni and Grammy-recognized engineers, the sound is expansive yet precise. Each track contributes to a larger emotional arc centered on female empowerment, cultural identity, and transformation—core themes that define The Bloom Project as both personal and political.

The album closes with “River Run,” a graceful and contemplative farewell that brings the journey full circle. Built on looping basslines and gentle house rhythms, the track allows traditional melodies to drift in like memories, carried by shimmering textures from guzheng, yangqin, and shakuhachi. Lyrically and sonically, it embraces release rather than loss, framing letting go as an act of strength and flow rather than surrender. From its resolute opening to its fluid conclusion, The Bloom Project unfolds like a carefully curated narrative of becoming. Adai Song doesn’t simply reinterpret history—she reshapes it, offering a modern global pop album that honors tradition while allowing it to bloom into something powerful, relevant, and unmistakably her own.