Music

Nisy Ends Year-Long Solo Hiatus With ‘TRAUMATISED’

BYYassine Hariss

September 4, 2026

There’s an adage that goes, the curse of discipline is that every day looks the same, while the curse of indiscipline is that every year does. Somewhere between the two sits the occasional need to simply disappear for a little while, take your foot off the gas, and give yourself enough time to figure out what you want to do next. And that’s more or less what Nisy has done.

Since dropping her debut EP RIP THE DRAGON, the Moroccan artist has spent much of the past year keeping things pretty quiet. Aside from Bnt Ness, in collaboration with Kartman, there have been no singles, no constant stream of releases and no attempt to make noise just for the sake of reminding everyone she’s still around. But the silence officially ends today as the London-based singer returns with TRAUMATISED, her first solo release in about a year.

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Une publication partagée par NISY (@sheisnisy)

As she told MILLE, the decision to step away wasn’t necessarily about falling out of love with music. Rather, it was about giving herself enough time to deal with everything happening away from it. “Honestly, I’ve been going through a lot behind the scenes— healing, rebuilding, figuring myself out again. Losing my grandmother Zehra hit me harder than I expected and it took time to really process that,“ the 28-year-old revealed. “She was such a big part of my world, so when she passed, everything just paused for a while. I needed that time to grieve properly, to breathe, and to come back to music from a place that felt real and whole again,” she added.

But after spending so long away, the urge to create eventually became harder to ignore. There were things she still wanted to get off her chest, and music, as it often has for her, became the place to do exactly that: an outlet that doubles as a therapeutic space where she can take the time to process life’s challenges.

“Music has always been such a big part of who I am. It’s the one place where I feel safe enough to tell my story and just heal out loud. During the time away, I kept feeling like I had unfinished things to say, stories still sitting inside me waiting to come out. And at some point that pull got stronger than my fear of coming back too soon,” she said.

And TRAUMATISED is, in many ways, the result of everything she had been sitting with. Written as a way of letting some of that pain out and, hopefully, closing a wound that had remained open for much of the year, the track sees Nisy turn some of her experiences into music. Sung in Moroccan Darija and English, she touches on grief, betrayal, and what it feels like to deal with both at the same time. Sonically, though, TRAUMATISED doesn’t wallow in the sadness of its lyrics, leaning into Afro-Jersey and two-step while keeping her usual North African influences close.

Despite the weight behind it, Nisy says the track came together pretty naturally. “I was in the studio with Earthtone, and I just felt [my grandmother’s] energy around me the whole time,” she recalled. “It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t calculated, it came straight from my heart. It felt like the only right way to come back.”

Seemingly with no intention of disappearing behind the scenes again anytime soon, Nisy has been active ever since. Earlier this month, she even took to the stage at London’s KOKO, opening for Palestinian singer Zeyne and becoming one of the few, if not the only, Moroccan female artists to perform at the iconic venue.

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Une publication partagée par NISY (@sheisnisy)

Having hosted everyone from Amy Winehouse to Prince over the years, stepping onto its stage was understandably a pretty big deal. “It was incredible. I never thought I’d get to perform there one day and it gave me memories I’ll never forget,” she said, adding that she feels “grateful [Zeyne] chose me to open for her show.”

With another milestone now under her belt, the obvious question is what comes next. And, thankfully, it sounds like we won’t have to wait another year to find out. “Definitely, there’s something coming. I can’t say yet if it’ll be an EP or a full album, but it’s very close, Inchallah,” she teased.

Lead picture courtesy of Ahmed Idrees.

Nisy Ends Year-Long Solo Hiatus With ‘TRAUMATISED’

Related Stories

More From Music

Newsletter

The only newsletter you won't unsubscribe from

Follow Us