The Purity Of Nigerian Soul Singer Asa, By Onyeka Nwelue

The first thing that goes through your mind when you’re unable to reach Janet Nwose, Asa’s manager on the phone or by email, is that she is distant, inaccessible and completely arrogant. You’re wrong on all counts. She’s not any of that – she is busy. Asa gets all kinds of requests and this young woman needs to handle all of them wisely.

I first saw Asa perform at Oceanview Restaurant at the NLNG Prize for Literature Party, in 2004. She sang “Runaway.” I was there. Before that, I had met her at Jazzville in Onike in Iwaya suburb of Yaba. A closer encounter again, years later, was when she had become very famous and successful, at Protea Hotel in Ikeja. While all my friends were shy to go and say hello to Asa, I went. I have no shame – more so when this famous person is someone I love. I went, and Asa left what she was reading on her tab to talk to me. Janet also was very very nice with me and chatted for long, even as they were about to take off to the airport to fly to Paris.

Asa and Onyeka Nwelue (Photo Provided by Author)

I told Asa I would come to Paris and that I would love to meet them again. I left.

Back to Paris, I tried and tried to contact Asa and got no response. I kept trying; I’m relentless like that. I had started work on Hip-Hop is Only for Children, which just got released. I needed to reach her desperately. It did not work. I found another way. I got tired of trying to get to Janet. I was stupid enough to think, in my head, that Janet would be lounging somewhere on the bank of a Swiss lake, wasting her time, waiting to take calls from Onyeka Nwelue. She was busy, facing her challenges and her own life. These things we don’t know about. We just sit and cloud our minds with all sorts of preconceived notions. However, I never give up easily. I kept trying. Boom! Asa was going to have a concert at La Cigale. I checked online and the tickets were sold out. A friend of mine, Morgane Portier, a die-hard fan of Asa and Nneka, who works at the South African Tourism Office had two tickets and she said, “Onyeka, I have tickets for you. Let us go and see our love!” I went for that concert and I was blown away. I did not want to disturb Janet again.