NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
It’s been interesting to watch Samia (aka Samia Najimy Finnerty) evolve as a performer, a singer, and a songwriter. The first time we saw her was when she opened for Sunflower Bean at Warsaw in Brooklyn on December 7, 2018 and she left an impression: young and talented but a bit raw but perhaps still trying to be fully confident in her skin. After releasing her third studio album Bloodless in April of this year, it’s hard (as it always seems to be) to decide whether I like the earlier work from The Baby and her EPs or from Bloodless. Her latest feels a bit more folksy and more singer/songwriter than her earlier music but perfect for listening while having coffee in the morning! She is currently on a tour across North America to support her latest album and stopped at the Opera House in Toronto on an overcast Saturday night, May 25th. Based on the excitement from the fans who showed up early to queue, it was going to be a packed venue with lots of crowd sing-a-longs!
The opener was another young singer/songwriter, Raffaella (aka Raffaella Meloni), originally from New York City. In fact, Raffaella and Samia are the same age, best friends, and went to The Fieldston School and York Prep respectively for high school in the city. After releasing two EPs Live, Raff, Love (Act I) and Live, Raff, Love (Act II), she is working on her first studio album. On stage, she is playful (as she is with her music) and very talkative and open, almost feeling like the audience was there to document her therapy. Backed by just a guitarist and drummer, she also seemed to stand on her toes the whole set, as if she was dancing a ballet to her music. It all made for a very fun set and we look forward to new music.
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Samia’s stage setup was just as simple with just some light bulbs, a cooler, and a beach chair along with her band, as if we were in her back yard. She kicked off her set with “Triptych” from The Baby followed by “Dare” from Bloodless. She was all business for the most part, moving from song to song without too much banter, although she did talk about Raffaella several times including a mention that she wrote the song “North Poles” about her friend. Otherwise, she did dance around a bit, sat down on her beach chair, and sat on the drum riser a couple of times. Faithfully, her fans sang along to many songs in her set, made primarily of songs from Bloodless, with several from The Baby and just a couple from Honey. All in all, it was a very satisfying if not thrilling set but she did bring Bloodless to life, something that can’t always be heard from the produced tracks. The nice nineteen song set went by so quickly that it felt short….which it wasn’t!! Her tour continues in June before taking the summer off and starts again in September. After North America, she’ll do three shows in the UK so there is still plenty of time to catch Samia on the current tour!
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