Sevana heads to New Orleans Jazz Fest, outlines full-length debut plans

Sevana, born Anna-Sharé Blake, has confirmed she will take the stage twice at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April, a booking she says “felt like alignment” and which will mark her first visit to New Orleans. One of the two appearances is tied to the festival’s foundation initiative supporting young people pursuing music.

After getting a taste of foreign stages with her Need Me UK tour, which included sold-out shows and performances across the Caribbean and North America, the Brand New singer is now fully in album mode, preparing her first full-length project. The album is planned for release later this year and is expected to contain between 10 and 12 tracks.

Sevana frames the move to a full-length record against a recording career that spans over 10 years but, she notes, includes “only 20 songs total.” That catalog figure underpins her rationale for expanding into an album format: “So there is a real opportunity for me to continue to carve out my story in a way that is meaningful,” Sevana said.

On the creative front, the project is being shaped to reflect “life experiences, personal observations, and emotional truth,” language Sevana and her team have used to describe the direction. She has signaled a measured approach to the work, summing up her intent in three words: “No rush. No spectacle. Just intention.”

The New Orleans engagement offers a specific, public moment for the new phase of her career. The festival booking in April includes a performance that explicitly supports the Jazz & Heritage Festival foundation’s youth music initiatives, and Sevana has said she has been reading about New Orleans since she was a teenager, making the upcoming trip both a first visit and a sort of personal milestone.

Several logistical and creative details remain unannounced: exact set times and stages for her two festival appearances in April, whether the youth-focused set will take place on a main festival stage or a separate platform, the album’s title, a firm release date, and any producers or collaborators attached to the 10 to 12 track project. For now, Sevana’s April dates and a first full-length record planned later this year mark the next public steps in what media outlets are calling her album era.