on salawa

She brought down the house with her most famous song, the title of which very few women know, though they know all the words. With plenty of attitude, Salawa Abeni and the women in the house sang the lines: "Won l'asewo ni mi - they say I'm a loose woman" - in what must surely now be regarded as a Yoruba feminist anthem.

Second half of the show, and the Waka queen emerged surprisingly unchanged fashion-wise, save for a fresh application of lip-gloss. In the true Yoruba musical tradition of praising oneself as one praises others, Abeni sang of herself onstage as: "Oloro tutu bii ti Mandela (soft-spoken as Mandela)." After Carry Go and E ji jo mi came the most emotionally touching moments of the show.

The above is from my piece on Salawa Abeni's show of 28 May in London - available to read online for one week only.

Related posts: 1, 2 & 3

salawa abeni in concert 2

"What about myself?" Salawa Abeni asked the audience as her energetic show neared its end. She called herself "the Tina Turner of Africa", with something of a "Madonna" thrown in too. If you don't know, now you know.


Mo Gbohun De, she sang - meaning: "I've brought the voice."

salawa abeni in concert

From The London Eye into the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and it was an evening of dancing, dancing and dancing last night with Queen Salawa Abeni.












I'd never seen Abeni in a concert setting before, and she was quite something. She was the closing act in the week-long 4th London African Music Festival, which began on May 19.

salawa abeni

Photographed the London Eye (in the post below) on my way to a concert by this lady in red - Salawa Abeni, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Abeni is the Queen of Waka Music.

* Photo taken 28th May.