Sampa the Great: Nu Zamrock review – a full-circle moment for a world-class act
News Source
•Fri, 30 Oct 2026 14:00:17 GMT
📰 What Happened
Sampa the Great's third album Nu Zamrock arrives as a genre-collapsing record that pulls psych-rock, kalindula, amapiano and Afrobeats through the story of Zambian zamrock. Tracks include the single Can't Hold Us with her sister Mwanje, the pop-facing Supernova featuring Sia, and the closing statement Star.
🔍 The Backstory
Sampa Tembo became the first woman to win an ARIA for hip-hop or rap in 2019 and is the only person to have won the Australian Music Prize twice, yet she has spent a decade insisting she is Zambian-born and Botswana-raised rather than simply Australian. Her move back to Africa to live and record, and her discovery of a family connection to zamrock codifiers WITCH, shaped 2022's As Above, So Below.
🎯 Why It Matters
Reviewer Caitlin Welsh reads the album as Tembo telling the industry that how it chooses to perceive her is none of her business, while arguing the record is her most relaxed and confident work. It also lands as African pop and rock hybrids reach mainstream Western audiences, complicating Australia's habit of claiming diaspora artists as its own.
Sampa the Great's third album Nu Zamrock arrives as a genre-collapsing record that pulls psych-rock, kalindula, amapiano and Afrobeats through the story of Zambian zamrock. Tracks include the single Can't Hold Us with her sister Mwanje, the pop-facing Supernova featuring Sia, and the closing statement Star.
Sampa Tembo became the first woman to win an ARIA for hip-hop or rap in 2019 and is the only person to have won the Australian Music Prize twice, yet she has spent a decade insisting she is Zambian-born and Botswana-raised rather than simply Australian. Her move back to Africa to live and record, and her discovery of a family connection to zamrock codifiers WITCH, shaped 2022's As Above, So Below.
Reviewer Caitlin Welsh reads the album as Tembo telling the industry that how it chooses to perceive her is none of her business, while arguing the record is her most relaxed and confident work. It also lands as African pop and rock hybrids reach mainstream Western audiences, complicating Australia's habit of claiming diaspora artists as its own.