One on One with Nakaaya

NAKAAYA SPEAKS ABOUT LOVE, POLITICS AND MUSIC

A lot has been happening in the life of the Tanzanian songstress Nakaaya Sumari. From clinching a record deal with Sony to a secret wedding with American rapper M1. Grace Kerongo met her and asked for her side of the story.

What would you attribute your current huge success to?
God. I guess was kind of forced into praying. I just came from a tough year, where I had a bad break up, and coming from where I was receiving a lot of negativity about my career. With a lot of people saying, I can’t make it. I started praying and things started happening as an answer to my prayer. Now I have a beautiful, beautiful husband, a beautiful record deal and I get to travel. In short I’m doing everything I ever wanted to do. People need to understand that there is a higher power.

Talking of your husband, when was the wedding?
I meet M1 (American rapper of Dead Prez group) when we were working on the single Mr Politician. Then, we were both seeing other people. There was too much chemistry between us it was overwhelming. I was in a very rocky place in my relationship. A couple of months after that we started the relationship.
Then on March 10, in Zanzibar we had a private ceremony. It was just he and I. I mean look at it, He is an artiste and so I’m I what option did we have? We will plan for another bigger ceremony, which will include his people and my people. We did not want it to be like a photo shoot - It was not going to be our day.

What inspired the song Mr Politician?
Every artiste writes songs that are in tune with what they are going through at that particular time. And at the time, I was very frustrated by African leaders, if you look at it we always go into elections and hope that things will change, there will be more jobs, education and medical care will be affordable, less corruption and lower taxation. But is not to be. It is frustrating because when you are young you have the energy to work and if you are not working then you end up depressed and wound out either doing drugs or getting into crime. My question was why should we allow them to bring out that side of us? It was the expression of the African youth through my voice. It’s about time the youth stood up.

How has the CNN interview impacted on you as an artiste?
It has helped my career in terms of getting publicity in Africa at large. It put me on the radar in a powerful way. I have received so many calls from very important people who work with big companies that want to work with me and involve me in bigger projects

How did you get the Sony deal? What is the story behind it?
It is very simple. People don’t believe how simple it was. I had gone to give a talk at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark on music relevance in third world countries. And at the end of it I had a small concert. I had arrived in the country a week before the conference in order to rehearse with the band as well as do some media interviews. When I got there it was cold, the flight had been delayed and I had lost bag. On arrival I was already slotted in for an interview. So I had to rush straight from the airport, in the clothes I had worn for the last 24 hours.
When I got there I find out that it was a political talk show called Deadline. I did not know that earlier. They asked about Mr Politician, aid in Africa and I answered all their questions. Apparently the business director of Sony was watching the show and he called after it had ended and I had gone to sleep.

How did you handle talking to him?
At first, my girlfriend - the woman who was in charge of showing me around - called my room to tell me that he was on line and I told her I’m tired I can’t talk now, I’m trying to catch up on my sleep, and I hung up. She called back and I was like, I’m tired. And I hung up again. She sms’d me the Sony executive’s number so I could call him back. And I did not. You know, I had just arrived in Denmark and I did not think I could be Sony material. And you know what, he called. I was stammering the whole time. He wanted to know if I’m affiliated to any record company and that is when he said Sony would like to work with me.
It happened in the span of the same hour I had landed in the country, which is the same hour I got the deal.

Courtesy: Nairobi Star