Semma

Semma, who is based in London and known on Instagram as “iamsemma” is a female singer with a monthly listener count of 1,146 on Spotify (Assessed 12/12/25). Having released Lonely Ride maxi single in 2025, which includes 6 versions of the song Lonely Ride, including the original, instrumental versions, accapella versions and club mix versions. This recent release shows versatility in her work and appeals to the listeners the club mix DJs, and producers. Her natural sound is directed to R&B with some dance electronic music subtleties. With Semma’s work, you can occasionally see a hint of pop as well. Therefore, increasing versatility as previously mentioned. Semma’s most-streamed track is “Cut The Rope” 299,988 (Assessed 15th December). Semma is signed by Fade to Mind label, which is known for its electronic sound. There isn’t much information about her personal life, including her age.

On her Instagram, Semma promotes her releases by posting. Recent posts include her club mix release, which is a good way to encourage her followers to listen to the track. As shown in the image above, which is a snip of Semma’s Instagram posts, we see an appearance which is strong and confident. The clothing choice matches up with the vibe she is trying to show, therefore, making her visual identity feel intentional. This allows followers and newcomers to her page to recognise her quickly and allows them to acknowledge what she’s about. We see Semma wear colours that make her stand out or draw attention, like the bright pink outfit in her recent post. Semma’s fashion choice adds more to her being an artist who creates music; it gives her listeners a person they can look up to with her strong, confident look. This can have a positive impact on followers, becoming potential fans. With Semma posting photos of just herself, this confidence is backed up by the facial expressions she gives, which align her clothing choice, shows real confidence. This shows followers that they can dress as they want with confidence, which is very inspiring to followers and fans, which can lead to more recognition. For Semma, identifying her image and how she is interpreted is key for an emerging artist, as it helps gain recognition and can help her stand out as a brand. 

https://www.instagram.com/iamsemma/

Semma would appeal to a big audience, males and females. Seen as where female pop/R&B artists are in the industry at the moment. As the second most-streamed artist in 2025 was Taylor Swift, with notable mentions to Billie Eilish (5th), who is also a pop artist. Generation-wise she would appeal to Gen Z and Millennials. However, these are strictly pop but seeing her work on the electronic music tracks such as “Lonely Ride (Club Mix)”, potentially Semma could look at Becky Hill who has electronic pop-style music. On top of that, Charlie XCX who has well-known pop hits such as “360” and also has electronic music where we see her add that confident, amazing voice like “Von dutch”.

However, with current stars such as the ones mentioned above who are at the top of their game and many more emerging female pop artists.  As she is branding herself like these recognised artists, it is a very competitive market. Therefore, it is important to stand out as if her style is too familiar, as people might not pay any notice. If she is fully committed to this style, she needs to make sure that all content looks professional and classy, including social media, music videos, production and marketing. 

What Semma can do to help her stand out from the rest of the market is a consistent look. This is mainly determined by her fashion choices with her clothes and the vibe she gives off. To add to making Semma stand out she needs to show a personality trait like humour, attitude or bar from a personality trait something in her musical work which is a bit different. These could be lyrics that talk about a certain part of her life. For example, relationships and possible heartbreaks. Taylor Swift is a master at this, as most of her songs are about many of her relationships and how they fell apart. Overall, at the moment, Semma is on the path to achieving this, but needs to keep all aspects consistent.

This track puts Semma’s vocals in a mix of dance-pop track, showing that her vocals can be used in a different way. With Semma having this type of track on her Spotify, it allows her to be shown on more playlists made by Spotify as this is a slightly different genre from her other tracks. This allows more listeners to find her and listen to her music. This increases recognition for Semma. The track also would seem appealing to radio stations, and I would personally strongly recommend that Semma put forward this track to a radio station. This allows Semma to gain live broadcast royalties and gain recognition. This type of song appeals to young listeners who like pop with a dance style.

In Semma’s song “honeycomb”, we hear fewer instruments in the song, which highlights her voice. The tempo is slow, which fits the mood she is giving. Semma, in this song, shows emotion especially through the lyrics, as she talks about heartbreak. A point to add on top is that you wouldn’t “honeycomb” is very rhythmic, which highlights what Semma is saying, which brings out the emotion more. 

“Cut The Rope” released in 2015, follows a theme of emotion about a relationship. This song by Semma has a mix of pop and electronic which is structured in classic pop fashion: Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Chorus. Although the beat has a heavy kick her voice remains the focus point due to the minimal sounds in the song. The song is catchy and has a rhythm. Lyrically, Semma talks about a struggling relationship, which she highlights through the song as being one-sided. The title “Cut The Rope” refers to the breaking up in a relationship in the song Semma highlights it’s the other person breaking up with her (cutting the rope). The song is simple, but a strong emotional message comes through for Semma about her relationship trauma she is going through. The lyrics make it relatable to a lot of listeners, and the beat gives it a groove.

Semma’s song “Salty” with Girl Unit shows more emotion, but in a slightly different way, for example, compared to “Cut The Rope”. Semma in this song doesn’t come across as angry or annoyed; instead, she comes across as being over the relationship. “Salty” comes across as relatable for people for whom her style is targeted.

Electronic Music Route

Semma’s brilliance lies in her amazing voice and her versatility. One potential route for Semma and her development is a deeper move into electronic music as producers and DJs across electronic music genres. such as house, garage, and drum and bass are always looking for unique female vocalists. An example of this can be seen by the electronic music producer and DJ Sammy Virji. Who shows examples of female vocalists in his tracks, and the difference they make to them. A couple to name are Lucy Virji on “Alright” and Issey Cross on “Nostalgia”.

For Semma, this market is ideal as it gives her an opportunity to build recognition within the electronic music scene by collaboration with producers. One of the most beneficial factors of electronic music is the club scene that markets all kinds of electronic music. This is because tracks are repeatedly played across venues all over the UK and possibly globally. For Semma, this could spread her name easily if she were featured on a good dance track and would come with no marketing cost.

For Semma to succeed in being a vocalist in electronic music, she needs to identify her vocal tone and to identify the type of electronic music and genre it complements. For example, Issey Cross is known for her powerful vocals in a lot of dance tracks, which suit high-energy songs. What best suits Semma in the electronic scene is a tempo range of 122 to 135. House or possibly garage to emphasise her vocals with some instrumentals such as synths and a nice 4×4 funky groovey hard beat. Something to work on for Semma with her versatility, she needs to find a vocal style for her voice and needs to find the style of electronic music that will suit that style of voice. Once this is found, Semma needs to constantly show a style and sound repeatedly across her releases. When it comes to actually releasing a track with an electronic music producer, she needs to make sure that her name is featured next to the producer, as this builds a name and people will begin to recognise it when they see it.

Pop and R&B

However, on the other hand, you can see Semma in the Pop and R&B scene with her songs “Salty, Honeycomb and bits of Cut The Rope”.  The emotion, song structure and the catchy style suit the pop scene and her vocal sound and emotion has a similar feel to R&B. This gives Semma a wider audience while still maintaining her own unique sound and emphasising her vocals consistently. 

In the pop scene, Semma needs to make her song structure consistent with the classical trend in pop structure. She does in a lot of her released music, which aims for that style. A strength of Semma is her verses, which usually go deeper into her emotions, which really fit her calm, smooth vocals. For example, in “Cut The Rope” with lyrics such as

“I’ve been doing things out of my character,
Distancing myself from those I love.
I opened up to you in ways I’ve never done before,
And this is what you give me in return.”

On top of this in “Cut The Rope” we find a chorus that is easy on the ear and catchy. Therefore easier to sing along to. All of this makes Semma suitable for radio play, which we see a lot of Pop music played on. In terms of R&B for Semma, she ticks the box of singing about her personal emotions and personal situations within her music. Her voice allows her to express her mood and emotion well in terms of R&B. Putting both these genres side by side she sits in the modern new generation Pop and R&B scene. Although quite a few artists blend these two genres for Semma it would be more beneficial for her to identify more of a side to one of the genres so she can be identified for one particular sound with a hint of the other. This still makes Semma unique to listeners, but enables listeners to expect a certain sound which they enjoy. Listeners may find the blend of genres and the inconsistent type of style of song being released irritating, and Semma may lose dependable, consistent listeners.

To build a name in the Pop and R&B scene for Semma, she needs to consistently release music across all streaming platforms. Doing this, new listeners are targeted by algorithms as she is getting consistent, reliable streams from her listeners who already like her work. 

Within the R&B scene is a strong love for an R&B club which requires performers. Semma seems to be the perfect fit for a role like this as an R&B live performer. With her standing beside a DJ in a small, intimate club with an audience which is engaged. This sort of environment is where Semma could really thrive and allows her to gain experience as a live performer. As she is a small artist trying to gain recognition, featuring in an event like this allows her to build a name by word of mouth from the audience. In small, intimate venues with help of the choice of backing track it helps allow listeners to hear Semma’s best quality, her voice. With this in mind, for Semma, she needs to express to the audience her emotion and how she delivers it. Backing this up with her tone of voice, these two aspects of Semma are her main strengths. Semma should also look to sing covers of well-known songs from established artists in R&B clubs, as listeners will always listen and engage to a song they know. Singing covers is a good way to encourage new listeners to listen to Semma’s original work. When performing in an intimate club, it is key, especially for Semma, to vary the song type in terms of tempo, more upbeat and some more groovey tracks. This allows Semma to show off her versatility, which will impress an audience. This helps build recognition and a better reputation, which Semma needs. 

To sum it up, Semma’s great vocals, song structure and her lyrics writing make her well-suited for Pop and R&B. Following everything that has been said, she can really grow her audience and her fan base and make a big name in these genres.

Social Media

One of Semma’s most important areas of focus should be her use of TikTok, as it has become one of the most effective and cost-efficient social media platforms for an emerging artist like Semma to reach a large audience. TikTok is great for Semma as posts access listeners directly by coming up on their feed. This makes TikTok essential for Semma in the modern music industry. When looking at Semma’s TikTok account, it is noticeable that it needs a fair bit of work. 

Her TikTok account needs variety, as almost all video formats are the same, and it doesn’t look very professional. Semma could use certain trends, which are often a dance or challenge, aligned with an audio clip. A possible marketing strategy for Semma is to try and start a trend using one of her own tracks. This strategy would benefit Semma as it would target a large audience with no cost, which is the reason why we have so many major artists using this method to tease new songs. There are very few raw vocal clips, a lack of behind-the-scenes videos and most of her videos are filmed in selfie mode. When scrolling through Semma’s TikTok, it feels very repetitive to the viewer. Some advice for Semma is to be videoed in third person, which could include some behind-the-scenes content. For example, a video of her recording in a music studio singing a topline. Including raw vocals on social media allows Semma to show of her strongest selling point her voice. For Semma, this would add a feel of inclusion for the people watching. This then encourages people to listen to her Spotify and check out other social media platforms. This results in an increased recognition and boosts algorithms to enable new listeners to view her social media. 

Semma could also include dance music content in her social media, which would show versatility and reach a different audience. This could be a way for Semma to discover which of her work is more popular to listeners her pop and R&B music or dance music vocals. For instance, Semma could share videos of herself recording vocals over dance tracks to appeal to that genre’s audience. Due to the TikTok algorithm, videos like this would target dance music lovers, which would increase her audience. 

Semma needs to realise she needs to grow all the following across all her social media platforms. Based on the fact Semma only has 1,612 followers on Instagram and 194 followers on TikTok. This is an obvious place for Semma to improve and can be easily done by constant uploads, hitting trends, using hashtags and posting content of a vlog experience. Another issue for Semma on these platforms is that there is no direct link to her Spotify profile on either Instagram or TikTok. This makes it difficult for potential listeners who may want to explore her Spotify page based on what they have heard on TikTok. Having a direct link can increase streams on Spotify. This increases revenue as more listeners are streaming and boosts Spotify’s algorithm, making it more likely she will appear to new listeners on Spotify-made playlists. Something to note is that even though song links are available on Instagram a more direct link to her overall Spotify page must be included. 

@semmababyy

Importance of fans

One important bit of advice to Semma is for her to realise how important loyal fans are in the music industry, as it is as competitive as it ever has been, despite having social media platforms that have heightened the chance of being recognised. Loyal fans are determined by their constant engagement and usually feel an emotional connection to the artist’s work.

For an upcoming artist like Semma, creating a group of loyal fans can form a consistent cash flow to help Semma survive or grow. Loyal fans will stream your music regularly, unlike an average listener who may play one of Semma’s songs a couple of times. Interacting with your social media helps your algorithm of reaching out to more people. Many platforms reward people for the engagement they receive, including streaming platforms like Spotify and Soundcloud. How algorithms work on these platforms is that when engagement is increased, it is rewarded by increasing the chance that Semma will be shown to new listeners. For Semma as an emerging artist, loyal fans provide a safety net and can multiply fans more healthily. This is a better way to increase followers on platforms than just a one-off viral video on Instagram. Adding to the list, loyal fans will buy tickets for live shows. This would be helpful to Semma, as mentioned earlier, about putting herself down for a small festival. Especially, it would help if Semma were to do a one-off gig.

For Semma to create a small loyal fan group is so beneficial to her as a small artist, as the income generated by loyal fans can go towards her career. This can pay for her studio time, quality of production and gives Semma the chance to take creative risks with her music. With the current feeling that Semma is trying to attract attention from anywhere, she is missing a trick of creating a loyal fanbase, which is so important to an emerging artist.

Potential Venues

A possibility for Semma to gain recognition is to do a university city tour around the UK. This is a great idea for Semma as it aligns with an audience that she attracts with her persona, fashion, personality and her music. University audiences are great for emerging artists, as university students are always willing to go out and find new events, especially in a genre like R&B, which Semma delivers. University events often have a lower barrier for a performer, which allows Semma to easily have access to an audience. Semma’s emotional lyrics will relate to university students due to most people are going through relationships or relationship struggles or pain around that age. Venues around the UK that Semma could look at include: Stylus and Refectory, which belongs to Leeds University Union, which hosts genres like pop, indie, electronic, hip hop and R&B.

Stylus

As previously mentioned about a potential venue for R&B is an event held in the Belgrave Music School in Leeds. Maad City is an event held every Tuesday night that has an R&B room with a DJ and an MC. Semma could really suit a role singing next to the DJ and working alongside an MC. Although Semma is from London, it might be better if she does some performing in smaller cities, as it will be easier to gain some recognition. Semma would suit this event as the audience for the R&B will thoroughly enjoy a live R&B pop vocalist performance. As the Maad City event occurs every Tuesday, this allows for Semma to perform constantly to people. This allows repeated recognition in the local club scene in Leeds. The R&B room is a decent size with a decent audience size, whilst being intimate. 

https://www.fatsoma.com/e/alrysuov/maad-city-at-the-hifi-club-hip-hop-rnb-afrobeats-dancehall

Another potential venue for Semma could be The Leadmill in Sheffield, which is often attended by university students. Another venue which is versatile in its use for various types of nights. On their website, they express their love for new artists.

Home 1

Semma could look into Brand deals in fashion, as we see she has a strong visual image due to her clothing choices. Having a brand deal that suits her visual image would be a great way for Semma to make additional revenue and gain recognition from the audience of a certain brand. A brand that Semma would like to take a look at that will suit her is Baby Phat, with its clothing seen on established R&B artists like Alicia Keys. A clothing brand with a good reputation and recognised will allow Semma to be noticed by a new audience, adding to her following. 

Conclusion

At the end of this, the plan suggests what Semma can work on and the possible ideas give advice on how to build her career as an emerging artist. Looking at her visual image and how this can be her brand, social media, live performance and different ways she can plan for her music releases. What Semma needs to remember as her strong point is her versatility with pop/R&B, electronic music and its production. The plan also identifies Semma’s visual identity and her fashion. Semma’s strength of her visual identity, backed by a confident appearance on social media, helps Semma to be recognised aesthetically as an artist. This allows followers of her social media to feel connected to Semma as they see her music and her visual identity align together. On top of this, branding yourself as an artist helps with marketing yourself. More on social media in this plan, especially TikTok, will allow Semma to grow. Using trends and behind-the-scenes content to gain recognition, however, Semma needs to do this professionally and vary her content as mentioned that her TikTok lacks variety. Live performance is also discussed for instance, R&B clubs and using smaller, intimate clubs to be accepted to perform and the intimacy of a small venue. Making loyal fans for Semma in the plan is highlighted as something important in the plan as it is a long-term growth strategy and is valuable for her as an emerging artist. Overall, the plan’s effectiveness may be held back by a competitive market with many established and emerging pop/R&B all trying to gain listeners’ attention. For Semma to stand out her music production must be recognised for her sound; therefore, it needs to be consistent, with visual branding and her social media should be active. She needs to focus on one genre and make it clear, as currently she appears to be balancing pop and R&B and some electronic music. The problem with this is that it might weaken her brand. The plan highlights multiple aspects of what Semma can improve on. Although it may seem there is a lot to work on. To succeed in a competitive market, she needs consistent content and being unique or different compared to other artists in the market. Semma has great potential to build her recognition, grow her audience and be a name recognised in the Pop and R&B scene.