Asake – 12th December 2022

If I remember the first song I heard of Asake earlier this year was Sungba and – yes you’ve guessed it – I heard it at DLT‘s summer opener event back in April. I was instantly hooked, quickly took out my phone and shazamed it so quick!

I instantly fell in love with this man and his music; he sings in his native tongue (Yoruba) and I am obsessed. I love everything about Nigerian culture especially the native languages – I am obsessed with Yoruba. I started following him on Instagram, twitter (you know it’s serious that I followed him on Twitter because I hardly follow anyone on there) and all socials he was on – even signed up for his mailing list. I am on only 3 mailing lists; 1. Stormzy’s mailing list, 2. DLT Brunch’s mailing list and now 3. Asake’s mailing list.

Every time he made music – apple music made sure it was delivered to my phone exactly as it does for all my favourite artists – literally OBSESSED. So safe to say, I had an alarm to join the queue to buy tickets for his show in December when it was announced. I lucked out, got two tickets for 12th December and two tickets for 15th. I was GASSED.

As you all know, I am a Caribbean babe (by way of Dominica) and so as much as I know a fair bit of Yoruba and Pidgin to get me by in Nigerian circles but singing in Yoruba is a wrap! I decided I was going to practice daily to be able to singalong and have the time of my life.

The day finally arrived; I got ready after work and went to the concert and had the time of my life! I sang the wrong words to songs I absolutely love (because project learn all the words did not actually work out). There were points that I could see and feel what Asake was feeling which was immense gratitude. He told us anecdotes about songs that were closest to his heart and I can tell you that it was an emotional night.

It was amazing and I am so happy I went especially as I went on the Monday – it made me excited for the final show. I am definitely a fan for life. Shout out to DLT for introducing me to this amazing artist and to find out he blew this year! Amazing! I cannot wait to see him go from strength to strength and not allow following events to put a damper on his outlook on the trajectory of his growth.

Thursday night was a different story but I will speak on it properly in another post, there is still so much I am processing from it.

Love and Hugs,

Tillyah x