Singer and Songwriter, Hembadoon, is following up her music offerings with a new single written and fully rendered in the native language, Tiv, dominantly from Benue State of Nigeria.
The latest single is a song titled “Kule Kule Hemba Ayem”, one of the tracks to feature in her upcoming album project, which she is currently working on. Translated loosely to mean “Patience is better than Hastiness” or in street lingo “To go small small better pass to do gra gra”, the song is written as a conversation from one woman to another, encouraging her through her situation in domestic and emotional violence as experienced in relationships and marriage, spurring her into self-love, self-confidence and control over her affairs, with the hope that all the efforts at healing will add up and everything will be just fine one step at a time.
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The song’s lyrics are in Tiv language, the artiste’s native dialect, and are inspired by Hembadoon’s interests to craft and export cultural music, in the manner that artistes from other African countries do, firmly believing that we are not limited in Nigeria to three major languages alone. She points out her musical influences to include Angelique Kidjo, Youssou N’dour, Femi Kuti, and other world’s music acts who have positioned themselves using their unique sounds derived from the cultural music they export. “Language is such a unique gift that when infused in music, brings out a rich rhythm, you see how people like Tubaba have creatively infused Idoma and sometimes Tiv into his songs, those are my best of his offerings most times. Other artistes who have also used the not so common languages like Ijaw, or a person like Jeremiah Gyang exploring Taroh in his songs, cultural artistes like Datala from Jos have served as massive influences as well. I feel like language is our essence and its expression is just so special.
“I have always admired the way other Africans have come to use their languages in art and exported it to us despite our lack of understanding of what is being said. I have also dreamed of one day, making such music, and positioning my own tribe on the world language map in the same way Swahili, Zulu, French and Mandarin are listed along with Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. I think the time is now and I’m excited to see what the response will be like. It will probably take time, but I see it catching on, I will keep exploring this as my music grows”, she said.
Hembadoon, popularly called” Lady” by her growing music community is set to release her album project in 2021, after many years of working behind the scenes as a public relations personnel for labels, artistes and public figures, also as a business development executive in various corporate capacities since her first ever single released in 2003. She currently lends her expertise in a Lagos based international distribution company as artiste and label services director where she oversees distribution enhancement and artiste repertoire.
