Nigerian singer Waje has one of the biggest and strongest voices out of Nigeria and the whole continent. She has found success in her own musical career and has also served as a judge on the hit television series The Voice Nigeria.
For 2 years though, Waje took a break from music before coming back to it this year with a bang. During a new interview with The Nation, Waje opened up about why exactly she took a break, and also answered if she is afraid that the other rising female artistes will take her place. Here’s what Waje said.
During her interview, Waje was asked “Why did you take two years off from your musical career?” She responded:
I think I was burnt out, I think that we should normalize people burning out and going to refill and come back with better energy than they left if that makes any sense so I needed the break, I needed the time off I did not realize that I needed it until I took it.
“So this time off you took how would you say it helped you come back to the industry?”
First of all, it gave me perspective on the part I want to play from now on and how I fit in, being that I have done this for several years and the sort of content I want to release understanding that I am a musician but I am also an artist and its art I’m creating and they would always be people to receive that art as long as I make it available to them, so it helped my mind.
All that time I structured working with more songwriters and more producers usually I may be the only one doing it(writing songs) or with my brother who is a songwriter or maybe two other people with me but this time I had a writers camp, I just released two albums, Waje 2.0 was released on 29th of July, I think and it had the best of the best producers, the album features Falz, Tiwa and I released the gospel album(Unbroken) on my birthday so there is intentionality now, I am not trying to run or like under pressure No, there is a serious direction on what I am trying to achieve and that’s what that whole time helped me get. I am looking healthier, I am looking younger, I am aging backward that’s what two years break can do for you.
“Are you not scared that these rising female stars would take your space?”
Everybody has their space, you cannot fill everybody’s space, everybody has space, and everybody has the part they play, I am loving them because they are opening more doors especially internationally, and they are crossing boundaries that are making it easy for me to cross. Like you can’t take away what I have done or what I have achieved in the industry and then coming to take it much higher you are creating more opportunities so I am not scared that they are topping their game or they are killing it. I want them to kill it a lot more because that also helps me to cross the doors that they have opened.
