Afropop singer, Tiwa Savage had an exclusive interview/feature with the New York Times.
She spoke about her journey in the music industry, her latest album “Celia” a 13-track project, which she titled in tribute to her mother amongst other things.
Here are 5 important things she said in her interview.
1. On her new beginning
“When I first started out as an artist, I was seen a certain way, and I’ve grown since then,” she said. “I’ve experienced a divorce, being a single mom, and seeing backlash for being sometimes too sexy in a male-dominated industry.”
2. On using her platform to encourage young African girls
“I have a platform now to encourage young African girls — and just young girls in general — how important it is to be true to yourself and be unapologetically strong as a woman.”
“But then I would open my DMs, and I’d see all these young girls being like, ‘I love your sleeve tattoo. I love your piercing,’” she said. “And it was like, I have to go back for these girls. Now I say that I want to inspire girls, but they inspired me to come back.”
3. On being a consolation
“I feel like as a musician, I owe it to my listeners just to have that one song where they just want to cry or they want to just be in a room and know that everything will be all right,” she said.
4. On her divorce
“It’s definitely the first time I’m being vulnerable,” she said, adding that it had taken years to come to terms with the breakup. “When we first started, it was just like, ‘Me and you, we’re going to conquer the world.’ And then it got to a point where the brand was getting big, and when I had to make a decision, it wasn’t just me and you,” she said.
Near the midpoint of “Celia,” Savage sings “Us (Interlude),” which directly addresses the breakup where she said, “I wasn’t enough/You weren’t enough/Love wasn’t enough,”.
5. On the inspiration for ‘Celia’ and how she produced it
Celia is named after her mother, and the album ends with “Celia’s Song,” praising her with churchy hallelujahs.
She convened a songwriting camp where she booked eight rooms for 15 days at the Oriental Hotel in Lagos, where producers and musicians could come and go, bouncing ideas off one another as Savage supervised, selected tracks, and came up with top lines.
“Just put your heart into it, and let’s have fun,” she told them.
Read the exclusive feature here
Leave a Reply