9 things we learned from Tiwa Savage’s diary with A nation of Billion interview

Wearing a light blue hooded sweatshirt, Tiwa Savage was interviewed by Akua Ofei and photographed by Daniela Monteiro for A Nation of Billions online article. Below are nine things we gleaned from that encounter.
 

 1. She regards her X-factor experience as bitter-sweet.

The singer was evicted at the Judge’s House stage at the 2006 British singer’s competition and is of the opinion that her music genre wouldn’t have expanded to afro beats if she had succeeded in that competition.
 

2. One of her favourite sayings is “Opportunity favours the prepared.”

She worked hard to learn her craft in the US and the UK. She attended Berklee College of Music to learn music, she learned the art of songwriting and worked with music artists to improve her abilities.

 

3. She discovered that there is a huge potential demand for African contents while in the US

Interests people showed in African culture and music in addition to encouragement from Tunji Balogun of then Interscope A&R but now at Sony, prompted her to come back home to launch her music in Afropop music, the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

 

4. She’s had good synergies with artist she had collaborated with

For example, Wizkid and Fuse ODG with songs that have garnered huge views on YouTube.

 

Watch Tiwa Savage’s new song “All Over.”

 

 

5. She believes that the Afrobeat sound is unmistakable

Though Afro music is continually evolving, and irrespective of the origin of the singer, the sound is unique and transcends languages.

 

6. Her passion is the Afro sound

She believes that it is important to maintain the integrity of the sound and that it doesn’t matter by what name it is called, “I don’t really mind as long as it has the Afro in it, you can call it Afropop, Afrobeats, Afrobeat, Afrosoul,” she said.

 

7. She thinks that the growing interest in the African sound will not erode the music genre

This is because the Afro sound is essential for the survival of the genre and it is the sound that is drawing the followership both from fans and from music labels.

 

8. She feels her success as a musician comes with a huge responsibility

Music, she says, offers a platform through which artist can “Sing and talk about other things and share a different light on Nigeria and Africa.”

 

9. She understands that there is a delicate balance between being seen as broadcasting her health-related charity efforts and the need to bring attention to those health issues.

Tiwa is involved in a number of humanitarian efforts including breast cancer screening projects, HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness programmes, and polio eradication programmes. Her words “I’m a Polio Ambassador, I’m actually very actively involved in that. I’m passionate about Polio because to me it hits home because I have a child. And at one point, we thought it was eradicated in Nigeria – and it actually was – but we had four cases come up last year that not a lot of people know about. With me doing that cause and not talking about it, it didn’t really help the situation because a lot of people still didn’t know about it.”

 

This piece was adapted from nationofbillions.com