FEATURE:
Spotlight
the incredible DAMEDAME*, then do go and seek them out. They are a duo consisting of producers and songwriters Barbara Boko and Edith Nelson. DAMEDAME* released their debut album, DREAMS ON THE PASSENGER SEAT, in July. I shall get to some features about them. However, earlier this month, DAMEDAME* won a coveted prize at the Music Week’s Women in Music Awards 2026. The New Artist award is one that really does signal those who will become future greats. Innovators in the industry. You can read more here:
“The ceremony kicked off with acknowledgement of the contribution of a key player in the thriving live music sector. To huge cheers, CAA agent Summer Marshall was presented with the Live Music Inspiration award (sponsored by O2) by chart-topping artist Maisie Peters, who’s booked to play The O2 as part of the venue’s 20th birthday line-up in 2027.
“She will give her all, she will be there, because that’s the kind of person and agent she is,” said Peters of the “most hardcore person I know”.
“We’ve achieved so much together and there’s so much more we’re going to build,” said Summer Marshall, whose victory was applauded by her family including Korda Marshall, her father.
Women In Music supports music talent with the highly coveted New Artist trophy (sponsored by PRS For Music and PRS Foundation), previously collected by Rina Sawayama, Nova Twins, Alt Blk Era and more. Our deserving winners for 2026 are DAMEDAME*, who arrived on stage to their track Fire Burnin’ Thru The Rain having received supportive messages on video from Jorja Smith, Tim Blacksmith, P2J and more.
The duo acknowledged the support of Tim & Danny Music, Sony Music Publishing and Robots + Humans”.
There is not too much in the way of interviews. I guess more will come. However, I do want to end with a review of DAMEDAME*’s sensational and must-listen debut album. It is amazing that Walsall has produced three modern-day greats. The duo of DAMEDAME* and, of course, Jorja Smith. They have worked together, which is not a surprise, but it does make me wonder whether this under-discussed part of the U.K. is in the process of producing yet another modern great. Important to not focus on major cities like London and look beyond. New Wave Mag recently spoke with DAMEDAME*. I wanted to highlight the middle portion of the interview as particularly relevant and interesting. I do think that DAMEDAME* are going to release so many incredible albums and producer for a lot more artists. They have that drive and passion:
“Their story begins in Birmingham, where the two first crossed paths around 2016 as artists within the city’s creative scene. They were fans of each other’s music, posting songs on SoundCloud, before a mutual friend introduced them and they began helping each other with records. By 2018, Barbara had grown tired of the neo-soul world she had been exploring and wanted somewhere to experiment with pop, Auto-Tune, and production without having to answer to a particular genre. The answer was an anonymous alias, a space where the pair could “create music with, like, no bounds.”
Even the duo’s name ‘DAMEDAME*’ carries a meeting point between their worlds. Edith, who is Ghanaian, was looking through Ghanaian Adinkra symbols when she came across ‘Dame Dame.’ When she showed it to Barbara, Barbara recognised another meaning: “lady lady” in French, a reference to her own French background. The two meanings crossed over, and they “just ran with it.”
That spirit of exploration still sits at the centre of their music, with DAMEDAME*’s fingerprints often recognisable before their names appear in the credits. Tyla’s “Double Blind” is one example, its stacked vocals and layered harmonies revealing the duo’s touch, while their production and songwriting credits extend across artists including Wizkid and Jim Legxacy. When asked what listeners recognise in their work, the duo point towards vocal production, background vocals, melodic feeling, and sound design. “We don’t feel like we have a sound,” Edith admits, still surprised by how easily listeners can identify their work.
That instinct was nurtured in the Midlands. The Birmingham creative scene they entered was small and close-knit, with the same people appearing at open mics, poetry performances, and workshops, creating a network where collaboration happened naturally. For Barbara, simply watching artists perform their own music in Birmingham was enough to make her realise that becoming an artist was possible, while the lack of infrastructure meant DAMEDAME* had to learn to create without waiting for perfect conditions.
“Not having, sort of, like, an infrastructure here, because there’s not much of an infrastructure for music, or resources, in fact, like, really meant that we became very dependent on ourselves, and DIY,” Barbara explains how they invested in their own equipment, recorded people in bedrooms and travelled with their setups. “It’s very, very collaborative,” Edith adds.
That DIY foundation eventually led them further into the industry, where their own project was temporarily placed to one side as opportunities to write and produce for other artists began to arrive. Barbara describes the transition from making music as a hobby to working professionally as “kind of like university for production and songwriting and becoming, I guess, an artist.” They had to learn how to finish music, moving away from their habit of starting “10,000 ideas” and never completing them”.
Prior to getting to a review of DREAMS ON THE PASSENGER SEAT, here is another interview to cover off. Ones to Watch sat down with DAMEDAME* and talked about their career. From writing for others and almost being in the background, they are very much at the forefront with their extraordinary debut album. Showcasing their songwriting and production brilliance, I do wonder whether there will be tour dates soon. I can only imagine what it would be like hearing DREAMS ON THE PASSENGER SEAT performed live. Quite the experience, I would imagine:
“The first song you ever released “A STRANGER” came out in 2023. Since then, how do you feel you've evolved? Especially, as the song is included in your debut album.
Edith: It's mad because it actually isn’t our oldest song. The oldest song on the project is actually “CINNAMON”, which I first made in 2016. I was singing and rapping in it, and then when I started working with Barbs, actually for a uni assignment, I got her to sing all the parts and I just kept my rap in. Since then, we’ve had about 30 different versions of that song.
Barbara: Actually, between 2023 when we first released “A STRANGER”, and now that we released the album, I feel like there hasn’t been too much evolving as most of the project was already there - we were just fine-tuning it. If anything, I’d say that most of the evolving took place prior to 2023. A lot of this music is very old, surprisingly, and we've kind of been sitting on it.
That’s super interesting. What are the most recent songs then?
Barbara: The youngest songs are probably “ALL MY LIFE” and “FIRE BURNING THROUGH THE RAIN”.
Edith: Still, speaking of evolving, we have changed a lot. Our approach to production has been simplified, it’s now cleaner and more to the point. I think that back in the day we just used to try absolutely anything, throw loads of things at the wall and just see what sticks. The more we made songs, and started producing for others, the more we understood what was essential to get a story across. You don't need to overproduce it because sometimes that just takes away from the song as well.
What was this moment when you kind of knew that you were ready to now be artists and to release all this stuff you'd been sitting on?
Edith: I would say after we finished Jorja (Smith)'s album. That’s when we had the strongest conviction to really go for it. We had most of the songs sitting there, but we were just a bit lost.
Barbara: We loved helping Jorja make her project, but we wanted to experience what it was like to take a project out of the studio and all the way to market, and be able to add your visuals and all the other assets that go with the music. You kind of miss out on that part when you're just producing. With production you're still telling a story, but you're working with others, so it's a process of compromise, which is really beautiful.
Edith: I think doing your own version of that, but undiluted, was something that we've been dying to do for years, but the courage to do it held us back. All of the things that come with being an artist is something we had put on the back seat for a really long time. So, when it comes to it there's so many things to learn and there's so many things to do. It's not just the music. If it was just the music, we would have released years ago. There was a time when we were just like,”it has to be now. All the fear and all the waiting around, it's not gonna do anything, so we might as well dive in headfirst and see what happens."
What led you to choose the name DREAMS ON THE PASSENGER SEAT?
Barbara: Honestly, it was an old song title that Edith had made for a song that's not on the project. We were searching for a title for a really long time and we couldn't think of one. I think at one point we were literally thinking of calling it Project X (laughs). And then I came across that song and it felt so powerful and it just sounds like a great project name.
Edith: Back when I was in uni and I was working at Domino's, delivering pizza. I used to bring my laptop and put it on the seat next to me and just work on songs in between delivering the pizza. So, when I made that other song, I was just reflecting on life. I remembered that time and I kind of just saw it as a time where no matter what I was doing, I always kind of brought my dreams with me, even when I was kind of feeling a bit lost or off track. As long as I had my laptop with all my creations on there, I was bringing my dreams along for the ride. It was relevant to our journey. We've been through a lot of obstacles and a lot of side quests.
Barbara: We've been through a lot to get here. I think just always holding onto this feeling of dreams, even if we didn't know if DAMEDAME* was going to be our route to doing music for a living. We kind of just started it as two friends and it was a form of escapism for us. It wasn't supposed to be our main reality, but it's been a vessel for us to chase our dreams.
Edith: And somehow we've ended up in the same place, Barbs all the way from France, me from London. We both ended up in the Midlands somehow and just ended up chasing this mutual dream.
Because we are OnesToWatch we always want to know: who are the artists that you are watching?
Natanya, we absolutely love Natanya. Just the whole world that she's building is just beautiful. Then plusamari, who is a friend of ours. Then, a French friend that we met actually online. He's an amazing director and also producer and artist, his name is N8SHO. And finally, Sade Olutola, she is insane”.
I am going to end with Shatter the Standards and what they observed about DREAMS ON THE PASSENGER SEAT. Following this album and the richly deserved acknowledgment at the Women in Music Awards 2026, I feel like DAMEDAME* are going to have a very busy next year. So many artists look up to them. Not just as incredible and respected songwriters. The music they are making for themselves is phenomenal. Long may these music queens reign:
“As a writing and production team, DAMEDAME* comprised two Black women hailing from Jorja Smith’s hometown. Barbara Boko and Edith Nelson were born and bred in Walsall, the Black Country, in the West Midlands, near Birmingham, and wrote and produced music before becomi
ng singers relatively recently. “It was the album that brought me home,” as Smith put it herself later about Falling or Flying, and home is where Boko and Nelson explore the topics of DREAMS ON THE PASSENGER SEAT. Home is where somebody cooks for you, where your partner refuses to answer you directly, and where the sadness you hide from Instagram stays.
The address of home is mentioned in “CINNAMON,” the track with the sampled vocal from Jabez Walsh production, and the woman there hopes for visitors: “Come look for me I’m home/It’s good for me.” There is somebody cooking for her there, and by her admission, nothing else is good for her at all. “Security was foolishly one hell of a drug,” she admits, having the idea turned into something transactional already, “I use my loneliness for ransom does that tell you enough.” She spends all nights dreaming but not sleeping, describing the faith that died without any bouquets coming to its grave, seeing herself being thrown eastward to Vietnam and the Philippines, and yet keeps repeating: don’t go home girl, stay.
Jorja Smith gives some thanks in kind on “FREEDOM,” where the writing part of DAMEDAME* is a challenge, “You wan’ talk bout freedom/Walk without freedom first,” together with the price tag for that, “When the colours disappear/Over the years/I lost my way.” She sings about somebody who is scared and sure of the thing that he needs lying inside him, and her advice is straightforward: “Don’t sell your soul could you live with it/On the edge don’t lose your grip.”
This very fear is explored on “A STRANGER,” the push and pull feeling that she just can’t figure out, “One minute I need ya/Next minute I wanna be alone,” until the imagery starts getting too dark for the uncertainty: “Don’t leave by the noon/Hold me by the noose/Hold me by the sun/Hold me by the moon.” Reuben Reynolds plays guitar there and on “LANGUAGES,” the lighter track, where she watches the girl’s body looking for something to say, sure that none can speak the same language. The request stops at “Baby girl don’t be shy/I see that you wanna be mine.” She begs the girl not to resist, and the girl remains unnamed and faceless with no lines of her own.
She demands commitment with an expiration date on “PROMISE”: “If I die/God forbid that you ain’t by my side/Is that a promise.” She calls herself a dreamer there and rolls her eyes at anybody who is not. On “ALL OF MY LIFE,” another track co-written with Alastair O’Donnell, the demand turns into self-reflection: “All of my life I have tried to become what you wanted/Feel myself falling slowly drowning in the oceans.” The beggary becomes shorter and shorter, from “Don’t let it be over” down to “Will you be my friend.”
The farewell is bilingual: “I cannot stay for another second/I will live alone not lonely in your love,” as she decides on “BURIED IN THE SAND,” and after making up her mind she starts singing in French, “On est assez cassé la la/See ya ya cha cha ciao/Dis moi au revoir comme sa la.” A wish-you-well message pops up in English in the middle of it – the most polite moment in the whole track.
What she can’t say to her partner she says to God on “SMS”: “Nobody can save my soul I don’t wanna wake up, God shake my soul Nobody’s gonna take my woe.” The verse afterward is even simpler. “I look at the news, I’m sad/I look on the ‘gram, I’m sad,” she starts and, in the same breath, “I don’t show it.” The self-questioning that follows includes the questions of worthiness and capability, starting with money and ending in nerves, whether she deserves what is coming to her, whether she is capable of doing anything with it, and even a hint of what job she has: “I don’t like sitting in these meetings whilst they rub their hands.” The imposter syndrome is even named and smoking included along with the memory of moving cars in a life that God ended for her.
Boko and Nelson tell the whole work history on “FIRE BURNIN’ THRU THE RAIN,” giving the answer to the question of how hard is chasing a dream in a form of CV: “Had 25 jobs when I was only 25,” then “I’ve seen many many trials in my Air Force 1s,” and then the friends who did not make it and prayers that are easier to pray for other people’s needs than for hers. She takes all the blame on “LUV MYSELF,” telling the girl that the ones outside are the same anyway, and digging deep down to the bottom of it: “Been playing villain all my life/Now I know I really shoulda love myself.” By then, she misses the same woman again, confessing that she knows the difference between good and best, yet still hoping she is wrong”.
I have no doubt that DAMEDAME* are going to be shining and burning bright for years more. DREAMS ON THE PASSENGER SEAT is one of the best debut albums of the year. The Midlands queens have a very bright future. Even though they have been writing for many years, 2026 feels like a new chapter for them. As a duo in their own right. I know a lot of artists and songwriters look up to them. I was keen to provide…
MY affection and salute to them.
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