Based between NYC and Beijing, Adai Song (a.k.a. EDM persona ADÀI) has been working at the intersection of Chinese tradition and modern electronic music, creating something entirely her own. As both a singer-songwriter and producer (you might know her EDM persona ADÀI), she’s racked up over 70 million streams and worked with major labels like SONY/ATV and Warner Chappell China. She’s also a Recording Academy member and teaches at Berklee NYC, where she’s shaping how the next generation thinks about it. From learning violin as a kid to writing her first song at twelve to becoming a multi-genre producer, Song’s career has been about refusing to pick just one lane.
“The ghosts of 1920s Shanghai finally speaking their truth, their words no longer softened by time or translation.”
“The Bloom Project” is her eight-track collection that takes “shidaiqu”, a nearly 100-year-old genre from 1920s Shanghai that mixed Chinese folk with Western jazz, and completely reimagines it through a modern electronic lens. Song is rewriting the stories, particularly the parts about women. It’s a feminist reclamation project disguised as an electronic pop album.
Take “A Lost Singer,” which kicks things off. The original was about searching for someone to complete you. It sets the tone for the whole album: respect the past, but don’t let it trap you. “Night Shanghai” tackles one of the era’s most famous songs, originally sung by Zhou Xuan. Song’s version keeps the city’s restless energy but adds her own approach through her production choices.
The standout track is “Make Way,” which reimagines “Rose, Rose, I Love You.” Instead of a delicate flower to be admired, Song’s rose has thorns and isn’t afraid to use them. The lyrics are direct: roses shouldn’t live in greenhouses, they need wild lives, they’re not decorations. It’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but sometimes that’s exactly what’s needed. Song has created an album that asks important questions about representation, agency, and whose stories get told in popular music.
“The Bloom Project” is a conversation between 1920s Shanghai and 2025, between tradition and progress, between who women were expected to be and who they’re claiming to be. Adai Song has made an album that respects its roots while growing in an entirely new direction. Give it a listen!
Muse Chronicle 
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