The Lael Project has announced the release of ‘It’s About Soul’, the seventh posthumous single from late New York soul/pop singer-songwriter Lael Summer, arriving July 10th 2026.
First released in 2013 to immediate acclaim, the track now returns reworked by longtime collaborators Tomás Doncker and James Dellatacoma — not as a revision of history, but as a renewed invitation to hear Lael’s message in full colour. Her vocals, lifted from a live performance at New York City’s The Blue Note, sit at the centre of the new version: intimate, fearless, and unmistakably hers. Surrounding that voice is a band of heavy hitters — instrumentation from the renowned The Specials Horns, alongside contributions from the late, legendary Amp Fiddler — giving the song a fresh pulse while keeping its emotional core intact.
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More than a decade after its original release, ‘It’s About Soul’ still feels like a direct line to Lael’s spirit: vulnerable without being fragile, bold without apology, and grounded in the kind of self-knowledge that can only come from telling the truth. Lael’s life was tragically cut short when she died by suicide in 2017, aged just 24. Yet her voice continues to reach people — not only through the recordings she left behind, but through the mission that now carries her name forward. One of Lael’s guiding beliefs was simple, and devastatingly powerful: “If I can help just one person through my music, then I’ve done my job.”
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That belief lives on through The Lael Project, the nonprofit founded by her mother — artist and activist Marla Mase — which honours Lael’s life by using her music as a vehicle for mental health advocacy, suicide prevention initiatives, healing, and hope. At its heart, ‘It’s About Soul’ is a formidable female empowerment anthem. It captures everything that made Lael such a compelling artist: her wit, her strength, her sensitivity, and her unwavering commitment to authenticity. This re-release is both a celebration and continuation — a reminder that the conversations Lael cared about didn’t end with her, and that her art still has work to do.
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Marla Mase speaks about the song with the kind of honesty that refuses to flatten Lael into a single narrative.
“‘It’s About Soul’ was another one of Lael’s girl empowerment anthems,” Mase says. “She wanted to empower girls, reminding them that their power lies in who they are, their spirit, their soul and not in how they look, even though Lael very much cared about how she looked. She was glam, she struggled with an eating disorder, and she truly loved clothes, make-up, and fashion. Both can be true. Her sassy bad-assness was as prominent as her vulnerability and sensitivity. This song showcases that sassy side of her and her sense of humor as well. It’s funky as fuck.”
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That “both can be true” is the line that lingers — because it’s the kind of truth that so many people, especially young women, are told they’re not allowed to hold at once. Lael’s music made room for complexity: for confidence and insecurity, for glamour and pain, for humour and heaviness — without ever losing the thread of self-respect.
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The Lael Project’s work sits within a wider and urgent reality. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in the United States among those aged 12–18, and the leading cause of death in the UK in men under 50. For the organisation, these statistics underscore the need for awareness, education, and compassion — and for spaces where people can speak openly, without shame. Over the past year, The Lael Project has collaborated with leading mental health nonprofits, including To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA), The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), while also building relationships with mental health organisations in the United Kingdom.
With ‘It’s About Soul’, Lael Summer’s voice returns not as a relic, but as a living presence — a reminder that music can be joy, defiance, and survival all at once. And if it helps even one person feel seen, held, or less alone, then the mission continues — exactly as Lael intended.
‘It’s About Soul’ is released July 10th, 2026.
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You can find The Lael Project here:
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Image provided by Mempia Music
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