TIWA SAVAGE, PAST AND PRESENT.

Tiwatope Savage was born on February 5, 1980 at Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria. She is the last born and the only girl of three children given birth to by her parents.  Her parents hailed from Isale Eko. Her family is what could be considered average in Nigeria, thus her family relocated to the United Kingdom when she was eleven years old.
Tiwa Savage music career started very early. She started her musical journey as a trombone player for her high school orchestra where she received a lot of recognition for her talents and tenacity while she was in the school.
She proceeded to the University of Kent and graduated with a degree in business administration. After graduation, she began working at The Royal Bank Of Scotland. In the meantime, she did backup vocals for notable musicians like George Michael, when she was sixteen. Later, she backed up for Mary J Blige, Chaka Kan, Kelly Clarkson, Blu Cantrell, Ms, Dynamite and lots of other artists.
Over time, she featured on stage with Black Eyed Peas, Eminem, Robbie, Destiny’s Child, 50 Cent and so on. At twenty three, she enrolled at Berklee College Of Music and graduated four years later as a professional musician. At Berklee, she was motivated and inspired by the drive and passion of the younger students at the institution which contributed greatly to her determination to excel. There at the college, she had a firsthand experience of how tough it is for a musician to move from just being a backup to the lead vocals and fears of rejection if the artist’s performance falls short of the audience’s expectations. She however enjoyed the college’s amiable atmosphere that made it possible for her to face all these challenges successfully and launch her music career to the mainstream.
Tiwa Savage’s musical success could be attributed to her professional background. Being a graduate of business administration, she had a perfect understanding of the Nigerian music culture, thus, when she decided to move to Nigeria and launch her music career, she was advised by both friends and families to think twice about it, especially competing against the home based musicians like Tu Face, P-Square and others but she was firm in her resolution.
Despite her understanding of the Nigerian music culture and her professional background, when she was mocked and booed and shown hostility by many who thought she couldn’t go far in the Nigerian music industry with her style of music. Despite all these, she dropped her first single and it proved to be a hit track because it topped several Nigerian music charts for many months. That was her saving grace because subsequent tracks that she dropped were generally welcomed and dominated radio stations.
She participated in the 2006 edition of the UK X-Factor and made it to the finals until she was out of the competition. Part of the problems she had to deal with at the competition was acceptability. For an upcoming artist, she had not fully learnt the art of carrying the crowed along, so it affected her performance. She said

“When I got the news that I wasn’t getting to the finals, it was a very painful time for me. Yet I had to hold back the tears until I got home because it would be bad to break down right there on the stage, in front of the audience because you must know that the audience are watching everything that you do. People admire you and know that you are strong, they wouldn’t want to see you breaking down”

Three years later, she signed a music deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Through the deal, she wrote songs for Kat Deluna, Babyface, Fantasia, Barinno, Mya and other musicians. She later received songwriting credits for Monica’s debut album titled “Catch Me”. Despite the fact that she enjoys writing songs for other artistes, she relishes writing songs for herself more. The did a background vocals for Whitney Houston’s “I’ll Always Love You”.

In 2013, she dropped her first album titled “Once Upon A Time”. After the release of the album, she told The Vanguard Newspaper in an interview that she put a lot of efforts into the production of the album because she didn’t want to be the usual Nigerian albums that would contain only party jams. Rather, she had put different varieties in the album; get the best producer- Oak who produces Rihanna’s songs to produce the album and that was why her it took her so long to drop the album. The title was meant to motivate upcoming stars and to tell them that once upon a time, she too was just a small girl in Isale Eko who had the dream of becoming a superstar one day. The album had seven tracks altogether. The album was nominated for best Album of the year at the 2014 Nigeria Entertainment awards and further nominated for Headies Award in R&B category in the same year

In 2011, she co-hosted the season two of The Nigerian Idol with IIIRymz, a Nigerian version of The American Idol. After the show, she featured in a movie debut titled “For Coloured Girls” with the likes of Ireti Doyle and Joke Sliva. After the movie, she was endorsed by Pepsi and she became the first female African artist to be so honoured by the international brand. In the same year, she established a recording label with her then manager Tee Billz (now her husband) and they called it 323 Entertainment.
In 2012, she joined the Mavin records after the inability of her record label and she quickly became the Queen of The Mavins. Her label teamed up with Mavin Records and she was the female lead act in the album that was jointly recorded by all Mavins signed artists titled Solar Plexus. Same year, Flavour N’abania featured her in a track “Oyi”.

On February 5th, 2013, she got engaged to her manager and later wedded him few months later at a popular and prestigious hotel in Ikoyi Lagos.  She gave birth to their son Jamil in 2015. However, crises began in her home when her husband accused her of infidelity and she accused him of spending recklessly and being addicted to drugs. They got separated for some time but they made up later and are still together now. On October 1st of the same year, she did a solo performance of the Nigerian national anthem to a rousing ovation from the audience at Eagle’s Square in Abuja. Later in the year, she collaborated with Praiz, Waje Timi Dakolo and Pamela Egoh to produce the song “Higer”.

Tiwa Savage's close cropped picture

Tiwa has thrown all her weight behind projects that involve or support youth all over Nigerian and she has been a very vocal advocate in the fight against breast cancer. Also, she raised funds for an organization that built school in her hometown (Isale Eko). In 2013, MTN signed an endorsement deal with her and the deal was rumoured to have worth thirty million naira. She is also an ambassador of Forte Oil and Maggi among others.

She released her second album “R.E.D” in 2015 and it contains two singles “My darling” and “Standing Ovation”. In 2017, she also released another album titled “Sugarcane” and it contained two singles as well “Ma Lo” and “All Over”. The former was all over the Nigerian airwaves, just like its name. She had received several awards over the years for her exceptional performance among which is the MTV Europe Music Awards for Best African Acts, the first woman in that category. In 2019, she exited Mavin records and signed a record deal with Universal Music Group.