Waka Queen Salawa expresses optimism on traditional music

Waka Queen exponent, Salawa Abeni has expressed optimism that the indigenous traditional music genres, will not go into extinction.

Abeni told our reporter on Wednesday in Lagos that rather, the genres would continue to survive modern trends of today’s musicians.

She said many young people were also taking to singing indigenous music varieties, often refer to as “old school’’, hence their continuity.

“’Waka’, ‘juju’ , ‘fuji’ , ‘apala’ , ‘African kenery’ , Afro-beat and our other local music will never die despite the dramatic changes in the art form year-in-year-out.

“In fact, the so-called new generation musicians are tapping from the past’s rhythms, lyrics, rhymes and styles in their art today.

“In truth, the old is just being modernised by the artists of nowadays,’’ the Waka queen said.

She said many of what the new generation of musicians are presenting to the public were rebranded ideas of what had been described as `old school indigenous music’.

“These talented musicians of today rephrase and many times remix lyrics from many of the songs from the likes of King Sunny Ade, Ayinde Barrister, Orlando Owo, myself and many others.

“We cannot also dispute that the instrumentals and musical rhythms of the rappers as well as highlife artists in these times greatly resemble our own and many times likely borrowed from us.’’

The Waka queen told our reporter that she was, however, impressed by the talents being exhibited by Nigerian musicians.

She added that Nigerians were very good at tunning the fortunes of any sector they so desire with the right encouragement in place.

“These younger guys have taken the music industry in Nigeria to another level entirely.’’

She advised them to be more focused, adding that they should be more serious in everything they do in life.

“Today’s Nigerian musicians and other artists must not allow their wealth, fame, popularity and riches lead them astray.

“These artists must also live mature lifestyles that represent respect for marriage, family life and they should eschew immorality, drug addiction and homosexuality.

“Our music industry must also be guided by law and not jungle justice, in which talents are exploited by godfathers and money bags with possession of the power of force to cheat,’’ she said.

She called for more government involvement by way of regulation, local sponsorship and impetus to attract foreign direct investment into the nation’s music arena.

She said these would go a long way to advance the sector.