Tiwa Savage opens up on balancing motherhood, career, industry pressures
Award-winning singer Tiwa Savage has opened up about motherhood and career challenges in an exclusive interview on Afrobeats Intelligence, hosted by Joey Akan.
Savage discussed the challenges of balancing her career and family life, particularly during the lockdown when her home studio blurred the lines between work and personal time.
She revealed that she often found herself working late into the night, compromising precious moments with her son.
“During lockdown, I had a studio (at home) and I was actually trying to learn how to record myself and then I realized that I was always there. 2 a.m. in the morning, and sometimes I’m not even recording, I’m just listening to music, watching something. Initially I was not spending time with my son especially, and it wasn’t good for me ‘cos I couldn’t separate work from home ‘cos work was in my home. And I didn’t like that; I wanted to be able to leave work and come home, I wanted to be able to separate work from home, especially for my son.”
“When it came to her son’s potential interest in music, Savage said she wouldn’t want him to follow in her footsteps, citing the industry’s high demands and low success rates, she expressed concerns about the mental and financial strain artists often face.
“I said this one time that I can’t sign an artist and I got a lot of backlash. My heart can’t take it. It’s hard. The rate of success is very slim, not only that, if you’re blessed to [have hits], your life span, it might not be, 10 years. It might not even be five years, so it’s even harder to sustain a career and to be lucrative. Mentally, as well, imagine being an artist and you’re not really making as much as people think you are but you have to live like you are”.
Savage also reflected on early career struggles, including being pressured to fit into specific molds, such as being branded the “African Rihanna.”
According to her, she faced skepticism about blending R&B and Afrobeats, with some labels doubting the genre’s commercial viability.
“Everyone was like, ‘you’re a great singer, you look amazing.’ It was more like, let’s think about it, but I never got the call back,” she added.
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