Tiwa Savage, as part of her promotional efforts for her recently released album gave an interview to The New York Times.
Interviewed by Jon Pareles, Tiwa Savage talked her fourth studio album “Celia” released on August 28th. She also shared details of her journey to music, her divorce, and how “Celia” was made.
On in the intentionality of her music Savage shared
“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 s**y in a male-dominated industry.”
Yet she knew what she was about “I wanted my message to be clear,” She added, “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.”
“Initially when you hear it, it’s just like, ‘Oh, I want to be in the club, shaking my b**t.’ So I’ll get you that way first. And then you go back and listen to the lyrics and then you get inspired by”
On how what she learned singing backup in America
“I learned 70 percent of how to handle industry stress from being a backup,” Savage said. On the road with Blige, she recalled, “The focus isn’t on you, but you’re just watching how she handles the press, how she handles fans when she’s tired, how she handles the pressure. So I was mentally prepared. I knew it’s a lot of work.”
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She recalls her manager and later husband Olatunji “Teebillz” Balogun coaching her on how the break into the industry
“He said, ‘Look at Rihanna, look at Beyoncé, look at all of these girls — you have to be s**y. “And I have to give it up to him, because that strategy worked in getting me into the market. Because when I showed up on the scene, there wasn’t anything like it. It was just like, ‘Yo, who is this? She’s Nigerian? And she’s wearing a multicolored catsuit in a video?’ So it got their attention.”
The afrobeats star faced backlash afterward resulting in her video for “Love me Love me” being banned by the NBC and some of her shows canceled. She recalls moving back to Los Angeles to resign herself to singing just backup.
“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.”
About her mum which she named the album after Tiwa Savage says
“If you tell my mom, ‘Oh, this is impossible,’ she’ll say to you, ‘OK.’ And she’ll walk away, and she’ll just silently get it done. She’s timid and reserved, but she’s powerful,” Savage notes she“Offstage, I’m very reserved, very quiet.”
Read the full interview HERE
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