He played something close to ‘Children’ on the piano and the melody fitted perfectly: Kenyan singer Sofiya Nzau has released ‘Hutia’
Beside her in the credits stand the Dutchman Madism and ‘Children’ author Robert Miles.
Sofiya Nzau has released ‘Hutia’ — a track in which the melody from ‘Children’ sits on top of her Kikuyu vocals.
The single came out on 3 October 2025 and runs 2 minutes 52 seconds. The date is recorded in the Apple Music catalogue.
How the ‘Children’ melody got into the track
Two names stand beside hers in the credits: Madism and Robert Miles — the Italian whose 1995 ‘Children’ sold more than five million copies and topped charts worldwide. The release came out under exclusive licence to Warner Music Group Germany.
How the Miles melody got there, the producer explained to Numéro Netherlands.
“I received the demo for Hutia and instantly connected with the emotion in Sofiya’s performance. While producing the song, I was playing around with some melodies on the piano and created something similar to the Children melody by Robert Miles. I decided to try his melody on the song, and it blended in perfectly. The piano melody and Sofiya’s emotion felt like a great combination,” Madism said.
Kikuyu as an advantage
She sings in Kikuyu — and that turned out to be her advantage rather than an obstacle. Under the official video she posted the lyrics herself with an English translation: an address to a loved one, asking forgiveness.
“I do not believe in losing who I am to gain new listeners. I believe in bringing who I am into new ideas. Using Kikuyu language, drawing from Kenyan rhythms, from the sounds of tea plantations or evening church hymns or voices raised in work, that gives me the foundation,” she says.
Her vocal parts travelled the world before most listeners knew whose they were. Then Sofiya stopped being ‘the voice on somebody else’s track’: ‘Mwaki: Refreshed’ (2024), ‘Digane EP’ (2024) and ‘Kumbaya: Refreshed’ (2025) are her own records, where she holds both the melody and the language.
2025 was a dense year for her. On 16 May came ‘Away’ with Topic, on 20 June ‘Kumbaya’ with ZERB and Izzy Bizu, which then grew remixes by Massane and Citadelle and on 3 September turned into its own release, ‘Kumbaya: Refreshed’.
Then came October’s ‘Hutia’, and on 9 January 2026 ‘Kamwana’ with Sama (US).
Sofiya became the first Kenyan artist to perform at Tomorrowland.
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