‘Damn, I Have No Money’: Musician Sonni Mai On A Year Without Her Music

R&B songstress Sonni Mai in her home in Chelsea. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Chelsea-based singer Sonni Mai remembers her last real gig before the COVID-19 pandemic lock down in February of last year.

“It was at Capone’s in Peabody,” she recalls in detail. “It was not as busy as it usually is — it was pretty dead. You know, sometimes we would get tips and stuff, but that night, we didn’t get any tips.”

It was a cash gig so Mai didn’t really think to save the money she made that night. Usually, from April to December, Mai is booked nearly every weekend with a wedding gig. “I just remember thinking, ‘Oh next week, I have another gig at The Burren anyways.'”

Except, she didn’t. Soon after she sang at Capone’s, states began to announce lockdowns and mandated quarantine periods. Like many, Mai remembers thinking that things would somehow get back to normal. But as the weeks passed, she quickly realized that her year, usually packed with gigs, was going to look quite different than what she planned.

Read the rest of the story at WBUR’s website.