Tamia returns with the single Forever And A Day

Tamia released Forever And A Day on 28 August, a single written and produced with Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony and out across the streaming platforms now. It arrives more than three decades into a career that has never depended on a comeback narrative.

The song is about a relationship that has stayed as exciting as it was at the start, and it works through what that actually requires: passion, real friendship, emotional safety and a willingness to stand next to somebody without conditions. It is a straightforwardly romantic record rather than a wistful one.

Kelly and Harmony have been in her orbit for years. The three of them made the Grammy-nominated title track of her sixth album Beautiful Surprise, the ballad It's Not Fair, and Lipstick from 2015's Love Life, and she appeared on their 2024 Louis York single Three Little Words. The pair record together under that name, and Kelly's songwriting credits stretch across hits for Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, Fantasia, Ledisi and Anthony Hamilton.

Tamia has been nominated for six Grammy awards without ever needing a chart reset, and the R&B and soul audience that follows her has stayed put across genre cycles that removed most of her contemporaries from radio.

The single also lands off the back of a real touring result. She wrapped a completely sold-out South African run earlier in August, with back-to-back shows in Cape Town alongside dates in Durban and Pretoria.

Chuck Harmony has had a visible fortnight either side of it, having also produced the Ms. Tundra single at the centre of Ne-Yo's country album. Forever And A Day is logged on the release calendar.