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Tiwa Savage on African Voices

By Chuks Nwanne
11 February 2017   |   3:48 am
The programme reports from Lagos, where African Voices discovers what made Savage return to Nigeria and build her career at home. However, finding success at home was an uphill climb for the singer.

Tiwa Savage

Explains Why She Decided To Move Back Home

Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage was guest of CNN’s African Voices for this week; the buzz was everywhere. For viewers all over the world, it was an opportunity to meet one of Nigeria’s biggest stars and First Lady of Mavins, whose vocal talents have taken her from humble roots in a church choir to singing in Los Angeles with some of the industry’s biggest stars.

The programme reports from Lagos, where African Voices discovers what made Savage return to Nigeria and build her career at home. However, finding success at home was an uphill climb for the singer.

“When I first moved to Nigeria, I got a lot of people discouraging me about being a female artiste, and a lot of people didn’t want to invest money or time because they didn’t think I was lucrative…. Female artistes are huge in other parts of the world. It shouldn’t be different in Africa,” she said on the show.

Savage’s musical career began at 16 years old, when she was singing backing vocals for the late pop star George Michael. African Voices learns that this not only allowed her to move to Los Angeles in the United States, but also collaborate with other notable musicians such as Akon, Kat Deluna and Fantasia.

She explained to the programme what made her decide to return to Lagos. “I worked with a lot of people, and they would be interested by my name… ‘Where’s that from?’ I’d say it’s Nigerian, West African, and they’d say, ‘You’re African?’ and fascinated that I was straight from the Motherland… This was a light bulb moment. These people were interested in Africa, and here I was running from it.”

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