INTERVIEW INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW INTERVIEW don’t lose your true self… but at the same time, you should still be able to communicate across board. But then, how do you strike that balance between staying authentic to your sound as an artiste and appealing to what’s main stream? The problem even with the listening public who love those sounds is that, past a certain point, most artistes sound generic. Yet, one of the things you are loved for is that your sound is different and authentic. Aren’t you worried that going main stream will compromise your authenticity? When I started out in the industry, I had singles… This is my third album; the first album had many great ‘authentic’ songs. Two songs stood out: ‘Serious Love Nwantiti’; it’s hi-life and in Music, its Quito. None of them was main stream at that time; they were just happy-go-lucky songs that were in that space of making you understand what I was trying to say. My second album came and I had classical music. I had classics like ‘I go go’ which had a violin and all of that in it but I also had songs like ‘Bottom Belle’ that I did with Flavour and people steered towards ‘Bottom Belle’. I also had ‘If you ask me’. ‘If you ask me’ wasn’t main stream at that time; it was great music! It was awesome music! Now with Omawumi, I made an entirely timeless album. I went back and forth with the different fusions of the live elements that I’ve always wanted to do. I knew the response I was going to get and I was happy with it. It’s either they love it or they hate it; there were no in-between. Now, because I understand that there’s a job I’m doing, when I make feel-good music (which I can), it tends to get more ears listening. If I can tell you about sexual abuse in a feelgood song and you’re feeling good and I’m passing a message across, then that’s good. I need to get to that point where I balance it out. I have a message. I can’t be in this generation and not speak out. Now, the only way for me to speak out is to speak in the language you understand. There’s a lot that is being said globally and even locally about the challenges of being a female in the industry. You have spoken about having an imposing personality and strong sense of self. Do you think there is a difference between being a female artiste as opposed to just being an artiste? Of course, there is! Whenever I say things like this, I feel I sound lazy. It just means we work twice as hard but it makes us stronger as women. The ideal situation is you just climb on stage, sing and feel good. The hours we need to spend putting layers of make-up on our faces; nails have to be well done; hair has to be well laid - everything needs to be beautiful. You need to be flawless. The moment there’s a little slip, it affects the whole performance; it’s difficult. Those are one of the many challenges. It’s very rare for you to make music and not sell sex and still get attention. Very rare! It’s not that I’m 6 www.glamsquadmagazine.com www.glamsquadmagazine.com 7
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