2018 was the most successful and strongest year for African star Tiwa Savage to date. The singer, songwriter, philanthropist and fashion icon was crowned Best African Act by the MTV European Music Awards and made history as the first female to win the accolade. In the same year also became the first African female to sell out London’s IndigO2 and she was handpicked by Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin to perform alongside Beyonce, Ed Sheeran and Jay Z live at the Global Citizen Festival in Johannesburg to an 70,000 strong audience and millions across the globe. She released a string of mega hits such as ‘Mr Lova Lova’ ft Duncan Mighty, ‘Diet’ and ‘Tiwa’s Vibe’ all hitting the No. 1 spot across charts all over Africa and securing her position as one of Afrobeats leading artists.

Tiwa Savage is a resilient force within Africa’s ever-growing entertainment industry. While conquering the charts in her home countries & becoming one of the most recognizable faces in the popular Afrobeats scene, she has also managed to carve a career as a reputable songwriter for some of today’s biggest and most successful musicians; all while balancing new roles as a wife and more recently, a mother.

Named one of the world’s top 100 inspirational women in fashion for US style bible Vogue magazine, Tiwa was born in Lagos, Nigeria where she lived until the age of 11 when her

parents decided to move to London. In her early days, like most families, she would attend church with her parents and soon developed a love for performing. “I tried to join the choir at my mother’s church but I was I too young so I used to go to rehearsals and just watch them.” Undeterred, she continued to attend her church’s rehearsals until she relocated to London where she met a group of young Jazz & Gospel musicians who introduced her to new styles of music, many of whom would eventually help form the foundations of her inspirations; the likes of Kim Burrell, J Moss and The Clark Sisters soon became staples in her musical library. “I was blown away by their instruments, their voices!” Further inspired to continue onthe musical path that was beginning to be laid out for her, she joined the school’s orchestra and learned to play a rather unconventional instrument – the trombone.

“All the other
classes were full and I had just moved from Nigeria. I think all the other instruments had
been picked and the trombone was all that was left.”

After years of practice, Tiwa grew bored of the trombone and asked her music teacher if she could move into singing. Her teacher initially had reservations and asked to hear a sample of her singing abilities. “My music teacher told me to learn a song and I learnt a song from The Sound of Music. He told me that I had a natural gift and from there I started to enter talent shows and competitions.” Through these talent shows, she met with Lawrence Johnson who ran and coordinated the popular Tuff Session singers who frequently provide backing vocals for a variety of
musicians. Johnson encouraged Tiwa to join the group at the age of 16 found herself singing backing vocals for George Michael. “That was my first professional gig, I couldn’t believe it!”

As a result of that session, Tiwa quickly found further work over the years with the likes of Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Emma Bunton and Blu Cantrell which lead to a meeting with Grammy Award-winning producer and songwriter Keith Harris, who at the time was touring as a drummer with the Black Eyed Peas. Despite having already completed a degree in Business Administration at the University of Kent, Harris advised her to continue her studies
at a specialist college. “He told me that if I wanted to take music seriously, I should study music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. When I started to research more about it, I realized it was one of the best music schools in the world; how am I going to get into this school?” Without the necessary funds to pay for school, she applied for a scholarship. “They held the audition in Ireland so I flew out there to audition but in order to get the scholarship, I had to be able to read music. I couldn’t so they asked me to sing.” Singing a Kim Burrell song, Savage won the scholarship, moved to Boston and studied Professional Music.

With her new found strength to push forward with music, Tiwa moved from London to New York City and began taking meetings with various producers and industry professionals. Through her wide ranging connections, she soon found herself back in the studio writing material she initially believed to be for her own upcoming projects. “I ended up in the studio and I was writing a song. The next day I heard Fantasia [Barrino] came round to the studio, heard the song and wanted to record it.” No more than a week later, she was called into a meeting with bosses at Sony/ATV Music Publishing; the timing of which couldn’t have been any better; her student visa was nearing expiration. After playing more material, she was signed to Sony/ATV as a writer and moved to Los Angeles racking up studio sessions with
The Underdogs, James Fauntleroy, Frank Ocean and Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds, creating songs which would eventually go on to find placements with Mya, Monica and Kat Deluna as well as providing backing vocals for Whitney Houston’s final studio album ‘I Look To You’.

By 2010, Tiwa still had the urge and need to continue as a solo artist and was slowly putting together what would eventually become her debut solo album. “You’re writing songs, you’re writing your experiences and then you’re giving them to somebody else. It never felt quite right; it was something I always wanted. I write these songs, I want to sing it and perform it the way I want to do it because it was something I loved through.” A meeting with then-A&R for Interscope Records Tunji “TJ Billz” Balogun set forth a change in direction; a change that would set her against the competition and help her stand out from the crowd. “I met Tunji and he told me about the growing Afrobeats scene back home in Nigeria. He thought I was wasting my talents being a songwriter & a backing singer and pushed me to move back to Africa. At first I thought it was a bit of a step backwards but he was adamant that this was my future. He knew it was what would set me apart from the rest.” Inspired and stimulated by the lack of true female superstars in her home country, she moved back to Nigeria and set up her own label imprint 323 Entertainment with Balogun, which soon joined forces with multi award-winning producer, songwriter and musician Don Jazzy and his recently launched Mavin Records label, releasing ‘Kele Kele Love’ as her debut single to widespread critical acclaim. Subsequent releases including ‘Ife Wa Gbona’, ‘Love Me (3x)’ and ‘Without My Heart’ followed with moderate success while also helping to shape and influence her debut album ‘Once Upon A Time’ which was released in July 2013. It’s unique fusion of Afrobeats, R&B, Soul and Pop cemented Tiwa’s worldwide appeal. “It opened doors to people who weren’t necessarily from Africa or into the Afrobeats movement. I remember [singer/ songwriter] Brandy came to Nigeria to do a show and somebody recommended my album to her and she loved it. I learnt that there’s beauty in bringing both markets together and I had the ability to do it.” Savage’s fearlessness in combining various genres paid off, earning her an abundance of award nominations including four Channel O Music Video Awards nominations, five World Music Award nominations, two Headies nominations, MTV Africa Music, BET & MOBO Award nominations and many more.

Away from her successes in music, Savage has begun to take small steps into the world of acting. In 2011 she co-hosted the second season of Nigerian Idol and appeared in the stage version of ‘For Coloured Girls’ alongside Nollywood stars Joke Silva and Ireti Doyle. More recently in 2013, she appeared in the third season of MTV’s Shuga playing Sade Banjo,
which saw her stepping into a role that wasn’t specifically involved with music. “I’d like to do more acting but I’ve held back on that a little because that’s a little too predictable. It’s about timing and finding the right role but I do think I have the knack for acting.” Savage has also been active in her philanthropic endeavors, supporting various youth engagement organizations and breast cancer screening projects across Nigeria and further afield.

Through her work with MTV’s Shuga, Savage is keen to share further knowledge of HIV/ AIDS prevention and awareness.

“I feel like in Africa, all they tell you is not to have sex to avoid getting infected with whatever is out there and that’s not realistic. You have to teach them to have safe sex; that’s a more realistic approach. Not to mention the many people infected with HIV who go on to live full, long, healthy lives. We need to teach that also; I’m very passionate about that.”

Tiwa also has plans to open a music school to give the opportunities she didn’t have to the next generation of emerging African musicians and business owners. “When kids are growing up, they see artists and want to get into music but there’s other avenues aside from being an artist. There’s songwriting, film scoring,
composition, production, there’s even music therapy to communicate with disabled people. There’s so many aspects of music that I want to educate people with and that’s what I’m hoping this school will do.” Tiwa’s business endeavors have also expanded in recent years. In 2013, she was announced as an ambassador for Pepsi, appearing in a number of commercials and advertising campaigns for the brand. Further business opportunities opened up after being recruited as brand ambassadors for Pepsi, energy group Forte Oil, mobile telecommunications company MTN, hair company Mega Growth and the Nestléowned food & beverage company Maggi.

While her main focus currently is raising her growing family after giving birth in July 2015,
Tiwa is still hard at work on future projects including new music, new videos and other
exciting endeavors which will be announced in due course. “I have this renewed strength that having a baby does to a woman; you’re in a different space in your life. I want to do things bigger, better, stronger and bolder going forward. I want to encourage other women to go against the grain because – especially in our culture – it seems once you have a child you have to slow down and I believe the opposite. You have to go even harder than ever before.”

In 2017 Tiwa was contacted by Essence Magazine to perform at their annual ‘Black Women In Music’, an event which takes place during Grammy weekend. She also released the chart topping hit ‘All Over’, a Baby Fresh produced single which became an instant club favorite across Africa. The record won the City People Award for Best Song and Tiwa also picked up the award for Artist Of The Year (female). Success continued for Tiwa in 2017 when she
made her debut performance at RocNations ‘Made In America’ festival held in Philadelphia. Her set was widely received with essence.com describing her set as ‘thrilling’.

Later that year, Tiwa surprised fans with an EP titled ‘Sugarcane’. The 6-track record includes tracks produced by Don Jazzy, Baby Fresh and Spellz and includes a feature from Sony Music recording artist, Wizkid.

The EP was met with critical acclaim both nationally and internationally. The Spellz produced ‘Ma lo’ featuring Wizkid become an instant club and radio smash hit with over 34 million views on YouTube.

She remains of the most followed African women on social media and the best is yet to come.