Tiwa Savage: Tiny Desk Concert

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.

Abby O'Neill | August 31, 2020

For her Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, Tiwa Savage returned, from London, to her birthplace of Lagos, Nigeria. She and The Alternative Sound band set up at the beautiful Jazzhole, a historic vinyl shop well-regarded among record collectors for the rarities within.

"As much as I would have loved to have performed at Bob's desk," she wrote to us in email afterwards, "I am really honored to have captured my session in my home city of Lagos, Nigeria. The Jazzhole is a happy place for me and always feels like home." With floor-to-ceiling shelves packed with books and albums as a backdrop, it certainly seems familiar to us, too — reminiscent of our performance cubicle at NPR HQ.

Tiwa, a veteran R&B and Afrobeat singer who began her career at age 11, has an enthralling elegance — both with the soft tonality of her voice and her striking natural beauty. On "Dangerous Love" she speaks to matters of the heart, takes a detour to the Reekado Banks single "Like" that she featured on, before wrapping the set with her newest single, "Koroba," which blends her native Yoruba language with Nigerian Pidgin English, underpinned by a catchy, feel-good rhythm.

SET LIST
"Dangerous Love"
"Attention"
"Like"
"Koroba"

MUSICIANS
Tiwa Savage: vocals; Stanley Unogu: drums; Gospel Obi: keys; Orowo Ubiene: keys; Phillip Akinkuande: guitar; Kenneth Ogueji: bass

CREDITS
Video by: JM Films; Audio by: Michael 'Mystro' Ajayi; Producer: Abby O'Neill; Audio Mastering Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Video Producer: Maia Stern; Associate Producer: Bobby Carter; Executive Producer: Lauren Onkey; Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann