Durban: Asa, iconic Nigerian / French singer songwriter and recording artist, is one of the headline acts to perform at the Durban Botanic Gardens outdoor stage on Saturday 1 June for the second weekend of the annual Zakifo Music Festival which hits Durban’s shores over two consecutive weekends with a series of intimate pop-up bespoke concerts in venues around Durban from 24 May until 1 June.
She shares the stage with Grammy-Award winning, multi-platinum-selling American artist Ben Harper.
Bukola Elemide, known as Asa (pronounced Asha) was born in Paris to Nigerian parents who were working and studying cinematography in France. Her family returned to live in Nigeria when she was two. Aṣa grew up in Lagos city, in the south-western part of Nigeria. She became an artist in Lagos, fuelled on old-school Soul, and was signed by a French label. She has also worked in Paris, to further pursue her music career.
Aṣa rose to prominence with the release of her hit song Jailer in 2007
Critics says that she’s clearly one of the most exciting artists to have emerged in the last decade. She’s highly in-demand by festivals across the world, and quality, intelligent radio stations are giving her a special place on their playlists. Her songs are heavily emotionally layered – which consider our universal melancholy, our dreams, our thoughts and our reflections. Her lyrics, like the emotions they describe, have a tendency to feel like they’ve have been part of our lives even before Asa wrote and sang them. She muses on the inexhaustible subject that is love, the spiritual calling, the need to party or to simply share a cup of tea with friends
Aṣa’s music influences grew over the years from the collection of great music her father had built up for his work as a cinematographer. These records featuring American, Nigerian and African soul classics, included musical greats such as Marvin Gaye, Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Aretha Franklin, Kinny Sunny Ade, Diana Ross, Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba. Asa went on to draw inspiration from them.
She will be performing on Saturday 01 June at Durban Botanic Gardens sharing the bill with Ben Harper (USA), Lindigo (Reunion), Maia & The Big Sky (Kenya) along with the sensational Durban talent of Red Robyn (ZA).
Aṣa’s performance at Zakifo is part of her Southern African tour.
The full line up of performers will be released in due course. Visit festival platforms www.zakifo.com / Instagram: @zakifofest / Twitter: @zakifomusikfest / Facebook: @zakifofest for regular updates. Tickets are available through Howler. Booking for early bird tickets now open.