In the music video for ‘Harmattan’, Uwade’s latest single from her upcoming debut album Florilegium, the Nigerian-born, North Carolina-raised singer dances at the golden hour in sandy, open desert plains. With zero signs of civilisation around, it could be anywhere – southern USA, West Africa, or beyond – but in reality, its location doesn’t matter.
It’s that exact sense of placelessness that makes Uwade’s music so enticing. The song itself features highlife-influenced percussion over a soft guitar melody. It’s easy to hear the West African sounds that her father would play to her in the car, as well as the indie folk of Fleet Foxes, who she supported on tour as well as providing the opening vocals for their 2020 album Shore.
In anticipation of the release of her first full length project, and to find out what drove Uwade to become the singer that she is today, we asked her: “What made you?”
When I was about five years old, one of our school assignments was to answer what we wanted to be when we grew up. I wrote “singer”, but with little intention beyond the fact that I liked how it felt to sing. I joined grade school choirs, harmonised with my friends, and felt like I was part of a secret society. Everything changed at the fifth grade talent show. I gave my best shot at a rendition of ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’ by Aretha Franklin, and something clicked. I couldn’t stop performing, and my community wouldn’t let me stop. I became known as “the girl who sings.”
I kept singing at talent shows, recording covers in my room, performing in school musicals, and trying to be creative wherever I could. Sometimes after a performance I would get off stage, and my friends, or their parents, or my teachers would have tears in their eyes. I was baffled, but seeing people’s reactions made me feel like I had a responsibility that was larger than just my own love for singing.
But, I didn’t want to be “the girl who sings”. So, in true immigrant child fashion, I tried to do everything else I possibly could, as well as I possibly could. I started pouring myself into my studies and extracurricular activities, determined to transcend popular opinion. But singing and performing still lit up my soul, and my paths continued side-by-side. In college I poured my heart into a cappella while also trying to excel academically. It was all so exciting and engaging, but I was always slightly torn.
