About Neyma
Neyma's passion for music began at a young age in Maputo. Known throughout her childhood among family and friends as a girl with a dream, her career got its first kickstart when she was discovered on the national TV singing competition, Fantasia, where she won second place. After several years of refining her stage and singing skills, her second major breakthrough came when she was given a chance to record her first album. In 1999, her first album, Brigas, was released and featured the popular singles, Brigas, Mae Virtude, Mais Bela and the classic hit single, Praia Feliz, which received major fan support and generated major publicity for the album.
The success of Brigas led her to release her subsequent albums Baila in 2000 and Renascer in 2001. Finally in 2005, she had her third breakthrough with the release of her third album, Arromba. Neyma was launched to the international spotlight with and finally seen as a major singing sensation from Mozambique and the Lusophone world. After going platinum, Arromba is still her most popular album to date having sold more than 40,000 copies in Mozambique alone and showing an outstanding sale internationally. The album was well received in Angola, Cape Verde, and Portugal. The album features the self-titled Kizomba-style single, Arromba, which turned out to be the summer anthem of 2005.
In December 2006 Neyma releasedthe 5th album of her career entitled ´Idiomas´, which features several fan favourite singles including ´Numawanga Yuwi´, ´Xilhamaliso´, and ´Lirandzo´ which turned out to be one of the most popular songs of the following year in 2007.
In 2009, she released her 6th album entitled Neyma 10 Anos commemorating her 10 years in the Mozambican music industry. Her hit single 'Ilusão' is a ballad duet with popular international artist Grace Evora, won best song of the year at the 2010 Mozambique Music Awards, where she was also awarded Best Female Artist.The hit single 'A Hi Dzimeni' is a traditional Marrabenta-style song that has become the anthem of women's emancipation and the agriculture movement in the country. At the 2011 MMA's, '10 Anos' was awarded 'Best Selling Album'.
In 2012, Neyma released her major hit single, Como Anima a Marrabenta, which won her 4 Mozambique Music Awards in 2013. In 2014 Neyma was invited to participate in Coke Studio Africa, where she collaborated with Phyno from Nigeria, and later in a special edition with Wyclef Jean, where she collaborated with him in a special version of his song Divine Sorrow for the RED Campaign´s fight against AIDS. Also in 2014, she was also appointed as national UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She also held a major 2 hour sold out and nationally televised concert to celebrate her 15 years of success as one of Africa's shining musical stars. She also took the opportunity to launch her special limited edition double compilation CD, Neyma Greatest Hits, which is already on track to be a best seller.
Neyma also returned for her third time to Coke Studio Africa in 2015, this time collaborating with Nigeria´s Olamide. Neyma recently launched her first children´s video, Parabens, and is embarking on new musical productions made for children.
The year 2015 also brought Neyma more international recognition, after winning the African Entertainment Award USA for Best Female Artist in the Palop Region, by most popular vote.
Watch out for her new upcoming releases featuring Nigerian superstars Olamide and Eva and also with Kenyan superstar Rabbit.