South African-born vocalist, composer, and storyteller NALEDI released her single “Aliens” on Friday 31 October 2025, a spellbinding meditation on belonging and the boundaries that define it. The song transforms the cold language of the immigration system into something human, reflective, and defiantly alive. “Aliens” is from “Darkness, My Old Friend”, a project that explores solitude, displacement, and spiritual renewal through a contemporary Jazz lens to be released in February 2026. The spark came while navigating the US visa process, when she first encountered the term “alien non-resident”.

NALEDI. Picture supplied

“I thought, I’ve never been called an alien before”, NALEDI recalls. “What does it mean to be an alien? Who gets to decide who’s an alien, when really, we’re all just visitors here”, she added. Set against luminous harmonies and understanding Jazz phrasing, “Aliens” distils that experience into a larger meditation on empathy and coexistence. It is a song about seeing the humanity in one another, and a reminder, as she puts it, “that we’re all just stewards on this planet, meant to leave it better that we found it”.

A rising voice in the global Jazz landscape, NALEDI’s artistry bridges continents and traditions. Born and raised in South Africa and now based in New York, she has performed at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Artscape Theatre. A graduate of both the University of Cape Town and the New England Conservatory, she has studied under icons such as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dominique Eade, and Jason Moran. Her work as an educator and advocate, from leading workshops for over 15 000 students to founding the Dreaming Girls Arts Foundation, underscores her belief in music as a force for collective transformation.