Witchcraft bossa nova is the genre for Hope Tala's Summer jam, "Mad"

London born Hope Tala released her latest song "Mad" this month. No disco. No 80s. No trap. Hope is out here giving us bossa nova.

As the song titles implies, Hope is singing about being so mad that she's tearing her hair out. But rather than scream over 808s and handclaps as Beyoncé did on "Ring the Alarm", or screech 'I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW' as Kelis did on "Caught Out There", Hope is giving a chilled kind of vexed over a lad back acoustic guitar. If you're a Hikaru Utada fan who really dug "Me Muero" from This Is the One, then you might dig this. And if you have taste, then you will just dig this anyway.

This is the Summer jam. The production on this song is gorgeous. GORGEOUS I tell you.

Hope Tala identifies as queer, hence the representation in the music video. I know everybody is sick of the word 'representation', but it matters y'all. And Black queer folk and queer folk of colour more often than not get it right without it feeling like it's checking boxes or sign-posted. It always feels organic.

Hope had released an EP Girl Eats Sun in 2020 and is currently working on her debut LP, the release date of which at time of writing is still to be confirmed.