Simi is back with “Stranger” – a heart-tugging single about how love can influence our actions and make us behave in a way we never thought we would. “Stranger” is the afro-pop singer’s first music of the year, and it’s a strong start. The song’s touching message is beautifully conveyed by Simi’s emotive voice, the piano accompaniment, and the beautiful string arrangement, which helped give the song an ethereal air.
In the song, she names the ways falling in love has turned her life upside down, singing, “I do the things that I never thought that I would do / I didn’t think that love will turn me into a fool / I can not help myself, it’s way too much for my mental health.”
“Stranger” addresses the darker part of falling in love, as Simi sings about the risks we take for love and the consequences that too often come with it. Simi then reasons whether the crash and burn that sometimes come with falling in love is worth it just to enjoy the experience. Should we enjoy the happy feeling that love brings when there’s a chance it could cause our hearts to break? Beautifully crafted and emotionally enticing, the song also causes one to reflect, as it leaves off with an open-ended question: Is love even worth it if it can turn one into a fool? “They say love never dies / What a marvelous lie / I don’t know anymore,” she sings in the outro.
The pop-soul ballad was entirely written, composed, and engineered by Simi, who tapped uprising producer Loudaa (Ayra Starr, CKay, and Amaarae) to produce the track. Speaking on the song’s theme, Simi says, “The power of love renders you powerless, and may the heavens help you, if you’re powerless for someone undeserving. Is it love when it transforms you so strongly, you find you’re becoming different from the person you always thought you were – the person you thought you were capable of being. Is it love? The song is about love that changes you for the worst.”
This is coming on the heels of the singer achieving a significant milestone in her career when she finally broke the billion stream threshold following the release of her critically acclaimed album, To Be Honest. Simi will be busy for most of this summer as she is set to accompany Alicia Keys on the North American leg of her “Keys to the Summer” tour.
