General

Nneka: Beyonce would pull more crowd than Jonathan

March 3, 2015 6:48 pm

Soulful Nigerian singer Nneka was a guest on CNN’s TV show African Voices. In the interview, the 34-year-old Warri indigene spoke openly and fearlessly about her life, the country’s battle with insecurity and the power of music.

Only on Tuesday, the singer self-released her fifth album titled ‘My Fairy Tales’ which include already-released powerful songs such as Book of Job and My love, my love.

“I’m talking about the problems and possible solutions, and what are the reasons for the problems that we have? We, as Nigerians, we’re not united; that has always been the issue… that’s our problem, tribalism, and what belongs to whom,” Nneka said in the interview.

“I also talk about children and the future, bringing children into this world… Everyone’s living in a cage and then you bring your child into that kind of society where your child is forced to live in fear.”

She viewed music as more powerful than politics in present times, saying “Beyoncé would definitely draw more crowd than Goodluck Jonathan if she was going to hold a speech”.

“If Beyoncé is going to talk about Boko Haram, many people are going to listen, and if she had something to tell Nigerians about love or whatever, many people are going to listen,” she added,

She stopped short of blaming the president for the postponement of Nigeria’s elections, but stylishly expressed her displeasure when she said: “I don’t want to blame anybody but I pray that he comes up with a good idea for us if he is an honest and genuine guy.

“But I know that Fela [Kuti] would definitely not be cool with him, Seun [Kuti] is not cool with him, and many other musicians who are very outspoken are not cool with him.”

Born on December 24, 1980 to a Nigerian father and German mother, Nneka Lucia Egbuna grew up in Warri and moved to Germany when she was 19 to study and nurture her musical talents.

She has collaborated and toured with the likes of Ziggy and Damian Marley, Nas and Lenny Kravitz. She also won the MOBO Award for the Best African Act in 2009.