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)
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