Samia – Pool (Stripped)

So that’s what went down: Samia played ‘Pool’ in her Tiny Desk concert way back in October 2023. Nobody really talked about it. Then last week, someone posted a clip on TikTok and –boooom!- suddenly everyone’s losing their minds over this song from 2020. Over a million streams in only a few days, and most people are searching for Samia rather than just stumbling on her in playlists.

The thing is, ‘Pool’ hits different when it’s stripped down. The album version from The Baby drowns her voice in reverb and ambient textures, which works, but you miss how powerful her vocals are. The Tiny Desk version was all raw emotion, no hiding behind production tricks. So Samia went back into the studio and recorded this new ‘Pool (Stripped)’ version that splits the difference.

There’s the mystery of that first voicemail when she’s singing, and it’s from her grandmother, recorded before she passed… It’s about coming of age and growing distant from your family, that unique brand of nostalgia that hits when you realize that childhood is over. Nothing in the stripped arrangement obscures that weight — each word carries more force without the electronic padding.

Samia didn’t force anything. She just noticed people were relating to a simpler version of her song, and gave them what they wanted. Sometimes that’s all you need.