By Kehinde Olusegun
42- year-old Olubukola Elemide (popularly known as Asa) was born in Paris, France on September 17th, 1982 to parents from Itoko, Abeokuta South local government area, Ogun state, Nigeria. She is a Nigerian-French singer and songwriter.
Asa’s father, Akin Elemide, was a telecoms engineer at the time. She grew up as the only girl child with 3 brothers. Her family moved back to Nigeria when she was 2 years old and grew up in Festac Town. On the Elemide’s return to Nigeria, Her mother became a shopkeeper and her father shot video reports for weddings. Young Asa had to deal with the harsh reality when her parents got divorced and though damaging for her she believes it came with unique blessings. The name ‘Asa’ was a Yoruba nickname given to her as a young age and it means ‘hawk’. Asa spent her formative years in the city of Jos, Plateau State, in northern Nigeria before returning to Lagos at the age of 18.
Asa’s mother enrolled her in the prestigious Corona High school Lagos and went further to federal government college in Jos and moved back to Lagos to attend Lagos State University and was enrolled in the department of Theatre Arts and Music. She got admission to study as a diploma student which required her spending about 2years but Asa spent only about a little over 6 months and then left because it was clashing with her professional musical classes at the renowned saxophonist, Peter King’s Musical School in Badagry, where she majored in Guitar studies for a year.
Asa discovered music while rummaging through her father’s music collection and discovered classics such as Marvin Gaye, Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Aretha Franklin, Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey and Lagbaja. Growing up she was rejected by choirs because of the deep tone of her voice. When she moved back to France she got inspiration from contemporary musicians like Erika Badu, D’Angelo, Rafel Saadiq, Lauryn Hill and Angelique Kidjo.
Asa met her manager and friend, Janet in 2004 and via her manager, Asa was introduced to Nigerian music heavy weight Cobhams Asuquo, who in turn became her musical partner and producer. While in Nigeria, she released her first single, “Eye Adaba,” then “Jailer”. Her songs received positive views among Nigerians and they were quickly being played on the airwaves. Asa soon signed to Naïve Records. Partnered with Cobhams and with the new involvement of Christophe Dupouy, she produced her first album, Asa. The release of the album saw Asa win the prestigious French Constantin Award in 2008, where she was voted best fresh talent of 10 singers or groups by a jury of 19 music-industry specialists in Paris.
Best known for her dreadlocks and guitar side kick, Asa’s music has gotten her international acclaim; she performed alongside Seal at the Montreux Jazz Festival and set out on an extended tour including Europe, North America, Africa and Japan. Asa with her signature husky voice has gained global recognition as an extra ordinary figure unafraid to tackle issues with intelligence and confidence. Her second album, Beautiful Imperfection, was released on October 25th, 2010. The lead single from Beautiful Imperfection is titled “Be My Man” and was released in late September. A video for the song was released in mid-October. She also performed with Fefe at the Sydney Festival in 2011.
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) referred to her as a probable21st century Bob Marley. She recorded her latest album twice: “Bed of Stone”. The artiste shared that she faced a few challenges with her latest album and even had to record it twice because the first one didn’t feel true to her. Eventually, she embarked on a few challenging activities like driving 18 hours from Nashville to New York in search of inspiration – and love.
In 2014, she started her own NGO “The dreamer girl foundation”. The foundation is centered on building library book clubs in Primary schools across Nigeria and the first library is at the Progressive High school in Surulere, Lagos. She is said to have signed a multimillion naira endorsement deal with GTBank.
Asa keeps her private life hidden as much as possible, though as rumours of her sexual orientation started to loom, she debunked them stating that she is not a lesbian and went as far as suing the media company for libel that stated she was a lesbian.
In 2017, she revealed that she lost her virginity at 28. According to her, I am ashamed to say I lost my virginity at 28, so don’t clap for me. Perhaps one of the reasons why I lost my virginity that late was because I was shy and I was too focused on my career that I didn’t even think about having sex.” Currently, Asa’s worth is thought to be about $3 million.
She has won some awards which include;
2008: Prix Constantin
2011: French Music Awards Victoires de la Musique nomination for ‘Female Artist of the Year
Recording of the year- Bibanke by Asa Headies 2008
Headies Awards Album of the year – Asa 2008
Won Headies Next Rated Award- Asa 2006
SAHEL STANDARD celebrates her ingenuity, artistry and originality.
