Why I Was Secretly Happy Tyla Won Grammy Over Ayra Starr, Asake - Tiwa Savage

Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage is one of the biggest musicians out of Africa, and one of the biggest female acts. As one of the top women in the industry, Tiwa has seen and experienced a lot, and during a new interview with BET, she opens up about being pitted against younger female artistes, the challenges female artistes face, and how she really felt about Tyla winning Grammy over her Nigerian peers. Here's what Tiwa Savage said.

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First, speaking about how she's always being pitted against new female singers, Tiwa Savage said:

TIWA SAVAGE: Any new female artiste that comes up, it's like "oh, she's coming to take her throne," and I would go out of my way to make friends with them because it's not a competition. The real competition are the male artistes, because when we, the women, do something, we do it bigger.

Then, speaking about the challenges female artistes have to go through, Tiwa Savage said:

TIWA SAVAGE: I've got stories of female artistes for days. They get overlooked. You can't do soundcheck. Like initially, when I first moved back to Nigeria, I would turn up at a show and they would say I can't perform because my outfit was too risque. Even some of my first videos were not played on national TV. They banned the music videos, and I'm literally wearing like a catsuit. It's not even like a bikini or anything. But I'm very stubborn, so I was like my dress is going to get shorter, my tops are going to be more revealing. It was just getting worse as they were bashing me. And then, it was funny because the females were now secretly loving me. So then they couldn't deny my followers, my fanbase was growing. So they had to put me on shows. They had to play my music, because there was a demand for it.

Finally, speaking about how she felt when South African artiste Tyla won the Grammy for "Best African Music Performance" over Nigerian nominees Ayra Starr, Asake, Burna Boy, and Davido; Tiwa Savage said about it:

TIWA SAVAGE: I was secretly happy. Don't tell them that, but yeah. I was singing "make me sweat" (lyrics from Tyla's song "Water") [laughs].

What do you think about what Tiwa said?

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