Adai Song grabbed a bunch of old Shanghai standards from the 1920s-1940s and decided they needed a serious upgrade, and the result is an album that sounds like nothing else you’ll hear this year. She takes these vintage Chinese melodies and throws in EDM production, rap verses, and lyrics about women who are tired of being told to stay quiet and look pretty.
“Make Way” reimagines “Rose, Rose, I Love You” but this time the rose has opinions and isn’t interested in sitting in a vase. “Wild Thorny Molihua” does the same thing with the jasmine flower song. Turns out she’s got thorns and she’s not apologizing for them. The way Adai layers traditional instruments like guzheng and erhu with house beats and trap production shouldn’t work on paper, but somehow it does.
“Night Shanghai” captures that weird metropolitan loneliness where you’re out in a crowded city but still feel disconnected. “Carmen 2025” proves that rebellious women are always going to make people uncomfortable, whether we’re talking 1870s opera or right now.
This is a Grammy-nominated album that actually deserves the attention, mixing respect for Chinese musical history with zero interest in being polite about it. To keep up with everything Adai Song is creating and to discover more of her work as both Adai Song and her EDM alter ego ADÀI, give her a follow on social media down below.
Follow Adai Song: Instagram – Facebook – Spotify.
