Asa jokes about becoming a comedian if her music fades

But Asa’s music has refused to fade away. This she must come to accept. She must also accept that she is one of Nigeria’s biggest music exports.

Last Saturday, Bukola Elemide popularly known as Asa held a return leg of her concert in Lagos. It has been ten years since her first album, Awe, was released. She came back to celebrate in her homeland.

But the concert, dubbed Asa Lagos Encore and held at the prestigious Eko Hotels and Suites, was also made possible by the ceaseless calls for the Paris-born Nigerian to return to Lagos the second time.

Last year’s concert was her first, and judging by the massive turnout, the more successful outing. However, the not-too impressive turn-out this year, which would be easily shoved at the doorstep of lacklustre publicity and lack of time, did not tamper with the merit and magic of Asa’s performance.

In 2016, Asa rounded off the concert with the performance of “Bed of Stone” leaving the audience with the exact same picture of awe, excitement and animation she started off with in the rendition of the ballad, “Awe” from her first and eponymous album.

This year Asa changed the game. She and her 30-piece orchestra gave guests a celestial experience of sublime music and magical entertainment. Asa subtly transmogrified her voice, her body and all the songs we have come to know and love for ten years into mystique instruments, weaving it stately until everyone fell into hypnotic stupor.

The audience danced, they sang onto of their voices and were lost in worship for two hours.

“She is magic,” an American expatriate in Nigeria, was heard saying. And truly, if one had not watched Asa perform, one might not really experience the summit of the beauty in the Nigerian music.

Meanwhile, before Asa came on stage, the crowd had witnessed performances from Nonso Bassey, Lindsey Abudei, Tay Iwar, Omolara Funbi and Aramide. Each artiste brought in a certain fusion of sound that prepared the mood for what to come.

But in a moment everything went dark. The violins struck a number. There was anticipation and morbid pleasure. Asa emerged on stage in a white jumpsuit. In that same instant, Awe came alive. Everyone roared along. It was simply magical. Satan Be Gone, New Year, Bed of Stone, Fire on the Mountain, Jailer, Bibanke every performance was punctuated with the right stroke of dance, instrumentality and movement. The crowd wore the emotion heavily and could do no less but to give expression.

Seeing the spirit in the audience, Asa went into the crowd hugging almost everyone, children, mothers, fathers, men and women. She hugged and encouraged. The emotion escalated once more and the crowd began to swoon for ecstasy.

Asa began to talk about Nigerian music how it had grown, her encountere with a taxi driver who knew Davido and her many passions. She talked about how she felt as she wrote some of her songs.

She said, “I wrote the songs not knowing who will listen to them. I just wanted to express myself. I didn’t know people would appreciate them. I would have become a comedian, a pastor’s wife, tailor if music did not work.” It did not only work, but Asa’s music also lives on and cannot fade away.