The Queen of Afrobeats, Tiwa Savage, stopped by Billboard News and opened up about the Afrobeats explosion, the backlash she received for performing at the coronation of King Charles III, being a backup singer for Beyoncé, Kelly Clarkson and Mary J. Blige & more!
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00:00 I'm always so nervous about Fashion Week
00:03 'cause I just wanna be like this.
00:04 Obviously you can't go to Paris.
00:06 - I've been telling her I want these shoes.
00:08 I desperately want them.
00:09 - Hey everyone, I'm Tiwa Savage
00:11 and you are watching Billboard News.
00:13 (upbeat music)
00:16 - It's Tetris with Billboard News
00:24 and I'm hanging with Tiwa Savage.
00:25 What's up girl, how you doing?
00:27 - I'm good, how are you?
00:27 - I'm loving the vibe.
00:29 You got me feeling comfortable and ready to hang.
00:31 - You guys let me look at the couch.
00:32 I feel really relaxed.
00:34 ♪ I did all my tattoos for every cosetto ♪
00:36 ♪ No one left a devil ♪
00:38 ♪ So many things I could do to you ♪
00:40 ♪ If only you'd give me the permission to ♪
00:42 ♪ I would never fuck until the end ♪
00:45 - You're not new to this game obviously.
00:47 10 years doing this.
00:48 I mean from X Factor to all of your career.
00:50 How does it feel now that Afrobeats
00:52 is kind of in the forefront,
00:53 obviously here in the States,
00:54 to like be new but also not new at all?
00:58 - Right, when I kind of got into it,
01:01 it was like you said, it wasn't crossing over yet.
01:04 So to see it now and to still be in the game
01:07 is like a blessing for me.
01:08 I'm just inspired like wow,
01:11 like seeing an Afrobeat artist achieve billion streams
01:15 and I'll be like what?
01:16 That was impossible.
01:18 Like not even when I started,
01:20 when I was just like a fan of you know,
01:23 like the Afrobeat genre.
01:25 So when I see it, I'm like so inspired.
01:27 - I remember I was talking about when the Grammys
01:30 like added their category,
01:31 but now it's not just the Grammys,
01:32 it's the AMAs, it's the VMAs.
01:34 - I didn't know that actually.
01:35 - I know, it's crazy.
01:37 - Wow.
01:37 - That they have these now Afrobeats categories.
01:39 Do you think that's a great thing?
01:41 Should there be more categories?
01:42 - I think it's great obviously.
01:43 I think it's great that we're being recognized.
01:46 I still want Afrobeat to be like popular music.
01:49 Like so I don't want it to be like a niche genre.
01:52 Like I still want it to be competing
01:54 with like R&B, hip hop, pop, country music.
01:58 - And you've worked with some incredible artists
02:00 also as a background singer.
02:02 So we know you got vocals
02:03 because you were singing behind Mary J. Blige,
02:05 Kelly Clarkson, Beyonce.
02:07 These are vocalists.
02:09 Like tell me about that process
02:10 and how it shaped you as an artist.
02:11 - It was great because I was able to learn
02:13 and you know, just be in the background
02:17 and watch how you know, they perform
02:19 even when they don't feel like it.
02:21 Even when they're having a bad day,
02:23 like I was able to shadow them
02:25 and you know, just be prepared for when my time was up.
02:29 - Okay, so we know you got some R&B in you, okay?
02:31 - Yeah.
02:32 - It's not just the Afrobeat.
02:33 So as you're working on new music,
02:35 what's the vibe gonna be like?
02:36 - R&B, first time.
02:38 I'm taking, I'm taking the step finally.
02:41 I've been wanting to do it for so long.
02:43 I've dabbled in it.
02:44 You know, a couple of my songs,
02:46 you can hear the influence.
02:48 Right now I'm going for R&B.
02:50 I'm not gonna forget my African roots obviously,
02:52 but yeah, I'm gonna take the risk.
02:55 Even if it's just 10 people that stream it.
02:57 - Listen, it would be more than 10 people that stream it.
02:59 You know this already.
03:01 - Well you, my family, my friends.
03:03 - And then like, you're taking your time with it.
03:05 So when can fans expect something from you?
03:07 - I would say I'm 50% done.
03:09 - Okay, 50% is a long way through.
03:11 - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm 50% done.
03:12 - All right, let's talk about your incredible year.
03:14 You've obviously been super busy.
03:16 I mean, from fashion week to all the festivals,
03:19 everything that you've been doing.
03:20 So what sticks out to you?
03:21 What's been incredible to you in your year?
03:23 - Oh wow, this year.
03:25 I think I enjoyed fashion week.
03:27 They work so many months
03:28 and then it's done in like 10, 15 minutes.
03:31 And I'm just like, whoa.
03:32 Like, so I was really inspired.
03:35 I was just blessed to be invited.
03:39 - And talking about being front row
03:40 to one of the biggest things ever,
03:41 like King Charles Coronation.
03:42 Like what was that like?
03:44 - Oh my goodness.
03:46 I was nervous.
03:49 Oh my goodness.
03:50 And I was like, okay, yeah, it's a coronation.
03:52 Then I heard it's about how many people watching?
03:54 Like 80 million or something?
03:56 - Way too many.
03:57 - I said, what?
03:59 But then just before I stepped on stage,
04:01 I was like, I'm representing not only Africa,
04:04 African woman, like, and it was so important for me
04:08 to like, just, I knew it was a really,
04:11 really important moment.
04:12 And that just changed everything for me.
04:15 And I, yeah, I went out there and I'm like,
04:17 I'm gonna kill this.
04:18 - Yeah, and you did.
04:19 And I love your perspective as you speak on that,
04:20 because I'm sure you saw like,
04:22 there was all this conversation online, of course,
04:24 then they're like, she's performing "Keys to the Kingdom"
04:26 and there's this monarchy, colonization.
04:29 You know how Black Twitter ate that up.
04:31 How did you feel reading that
04:32 after having had such an incredible performance?
04:35 ♪ You're the keys to the kingdom ♪
04:38 ♪ You're the keys to the kingdom ♪
04:40 - First of all, "Keys to the Kingdom"
04:41 was a song I wrote or co-wrote for my son.
04:44 It was to celebrate men,
04:46 because I feel like there's a lot of songs out there,
04:50 there's like, bashing the Black man,
04:51 you know, that kind of thing.
04:52 So I wanted a song that was celebrating, you know,
04:57 the Black man and saying,
04:58 "You have the keys to the kingdom."
04:59 And they chose that song.
05:01 But the conversation, I knew was gonna happen.
05:06 And for me, I thought,
05:07 if we didn't have anybody representing us on that stage,
05:12 everyone would be like, you know,
05:14 they would criticize the monarch and say,
05:17 "You know, you don't have any artists
05:21 supporting the Commonwealth."
05:22 So for me, I thought it was a positive step
05:24 in the right direction.
05:26 And I didn't mind being the scapegoat
05:29 because I knew that I was going to
05:31 deliver a great performance.
05:33 So you can say anything you want,
05:35 but I knew that you cannot criticize the performance.
05:38 And I wanted to represent and be like
05:40 every other Black girl or, you know,
05:42 Black artist watching it, you know,
05:44 like I wanted them to feel included.
05:47 - Thanks so much for coming to hang with us.
05:48 - Thank you.
05:49 (laughing)
05:51 (whooshing)