Tuesday, 04 October
03 Oct
While the DStv Delicious Festival may be over, the performances will go down in the books of history and will be embedded in the minds of festival-goers for a long time.
One such performance is by Nissi Ogulu, who took the stage and wowed audiences. Speaking to TRUELOVE about the experience, the 28-year-old – who collaborated with the Major League DJs for her hit-single Gravity – says that although this was her first time in South Africa, she enjoyed the energy of the audience.
“I’ve never visited or performed in South Africa before. It’s been great so far and I keep saying how much I love the energy of the people out here. The performance and reception was really great in terms of vibing with the audience,” she says.
A post shared by N I S S I N A T I O N ?? (@nissination)
The songwriter, recording artist, animation producer and entrepreneur is the daughter of esteemed Nigerian talent manager Bose Ogulu. She is also the younger sister of Grammy award-winning musician Burna Boy.
READ MORE | ‘We are very apologetic’ – DStv Delicious responds to festival backlash
She tells us about her singing career, growing up in a musical family and more.
Under which genre would you classify your music and why?
It’s tough to classify my music but it’s definitely Afro-rooted, contemporarily driven and globally positioned. As an African based in London, those are still my roots and I draw inspiration from there. It’s contemporary because I’m open to trying new things and exploring new genres. I want to make music for everybody from every where and that’s how my music is globally positioned.
What inspires your music and what are some of the themes you focus on when writing your songs?
People inspire my music the most. I draw a lot from what I see around me, how people interact with themselves, the stories they tell me and just from watching scenarios play out. It could be a theme park and a roller coaster and I can create a song about the ups and downs of life and the experiences of how that one trip felt.
Seeing that you come from a family with a musical background, how would you say that influenced your decision to become an artist?
My granddad had an influence on the music I was exposed to. He had a very vast collection of sounds and an understanding of music in general. So, I guess we always had the luxury of listening to different kinds of music. My mom had a music school even though she herself is not musically inclined. For me, that was a place where I learned to harness my talents and my skills and could really explore that side of me in depth.
When did you realise that you have a musical talent?
I possibly realised my musical talent at around the age of six or eight when I was just excelling in music class when I wasn’t even working hard at it. I grasped it easily when it came to playing instruments. At the age of nine, I realised I could sing. I think that was the time for me, and at 13, I made my first demo. That was me just coming into myself a little bit and building the confidence to get into a recording studio to record.
Who are some of your musical influences?
This is a bit of a tough one because I have quite a few but from the top of my head I’ll say Alicia Keys, Nina Simone, Michael Jackson, Jay-Z, and performance-wise, Beyoncé and the list goes on and on.
How would you describe your musical journey so far?
I’d describe my musical journey so far as an eventful one. It’s been a bit of an adventure with a lot of lessons learned along the way. A lot of progress made along the way as well, so, it’s been an interesting one and I’m really looking forward to what the future holds.
What’s next for Nissi for the rest of 2022?
For the rest of 2022, I’ll be releasing an EP in November and there’ll be a new single coming out before that. I’ll be going on a mini tour in October and I’ll have more shows in December, so it’s going to be interesting for the rest of the year.
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