Article Written By:
Nosihe
Asa (pronounced Asha) should need no introduction in Africa, and yet still a few ignorant souls insisted on asking me why I was so excited to see Usher, much to my disgust. Take one good look at me and clearly one would see I am no Usher fan but evidently those decidedly hopeful misfits saw me fit to watch an Usher concert. Needless to say every time I found myself in that situation after protesting profusely and nearly gagging with animosity I learnt to forgive the poor subject in the line of fire and energetically took it upon myself to educate the suffering individual who didn’t know her. I believe I have contributed to making the world a better place. If you haven’t figured it out yet… then I must confess that I am an adoring fan.
Even more so now that I’ve seen her live and I am happy to publicly announce that there are still incredible performers out there!! It was such a joy to watch and appreciate a musician for her vocal ability and insanely epic song writing skills, instead of whether or not she was shaking her booty all over the stage. With all due respect to those who might say there is always a time and place for the shaking of the booty but (as a self professed homebrewed girl) I am sick to death of hair-o-graphy weave skinny types prancing up and down the stages, lip-sinking to simple melodies with any substance. A women like Asa held the audience captive for an hour and a half not because she looked pretty whilst doing it, but rather because she can (surprise surprise) entertain without those useless frills! That’s becoming a foreign concept among performers of today.
How I wished to witness such a spectacle in my life time and I was blessed with the eyes to see and ears to hear her amazing-ness grace the stage. Oh my earth-shattering neurons she was amazing!!! Nothing could have taken my eyes off of her. Props to the baseline for the mixing of all the instruments! One thing every spectator should know is that mixing at the sound desk makes or breaks the performance for any musician. Not that it took much to make her sound incredible. She really held her own and I saw a true performer and entertainer.
I must say though that this time I saw the importance redefining oneself as an artist. Asa was a suit pant girl (if you know what I mean) every live recording version of her I had seen made her seem uneventful. She wore black suit pants, black shirt, all stars and those small framed nerdy glasses that made her look more like a Tracey Chapman wannabe rather than give her own identity. Hhhaa hhaa but this time, away with the black… and bam!! She was sporting a red tightly fitted maxi mini dress, Mui Mui shoes, bigger trendy prescription glasses and dyed her hair blonde with a tasteful bun to style. Say what?! I know right… There was a moment in the show where she went back stage and left her band to entertain, I must be honest, at that point, I had an eye rolling moment where I thought, “do you really have to go for a costume change now?” Much to my surprise, she went to fetch her trumpet. Asa plays the trumpet?!!! “Of course she does! How could I doubt it?” Then I respected her all over again and I swelled with pride, like I had been responsible for teaching her. Over the years I’ve learnt to appreciate good musicianship and Asa showed that time and time again. She owned it in the red number and you could tell she was feeling it too, using those Beautiful Imperfections to her advantaged.
Since she has released her second album, Beautiful Imperfections this Nigerian wonder has yet again shown us another side to her. Being able to catch her whilst she does her worldwide tour was such a privilege. In her previous self titled album Asha she managed to arrest out hearts and make us think of deep, often sorrowful themes of life with tracks like Fire on the mountain, Peace, Bibanke and Jailor. She now wows us about the lighter side of her with tracks like Be my man and Why can’t we. This lady is destined for great things and she’s here to stay. Open your eyes and look out for her, this woman is on a one way track to being one of the respected voices in