New Soul Talent - Nayo

Canvas Magazine didn’t have to go looking for new black soul talent, we recently met new soul-singer Nayo (pronounced Nigh-oh), one of Nigeria’s finest exports – now based in London.

Nayo (Temitope Odunayo Abidoye) is one of the most modest, unassuming and polite singers I’ve ever met. She’s taken up residence in central London after moving from Nigeria to study business in the States then a brief return to her homeland. She has come here with a single purpose, to make a solid start to her musical career in a buzzing and creative arena.

“Music’s in line with fashion over here; with being edgy and hip and fresh. In America, music doesn’t have such an association with being fresh and hip; a lot of people there listen to country music.” she tells me, and I’m not sure whether she’s disguising irony or genuinely too polite to make fun of Americans. “So I’ve become conscious that I should look cool, have a cool haircut and cool clothes.”

“But I’m not that cool, I never shop until I have a gig to dress for. “ She does pull of looking funky and cool, Nayo has an effortless style and stunning looks. She features on a dramatic and striking cover for her album, shot by Joel Anderson.

The recent release came out without massive fanfare or making a big dent in the charts, but she’s picking up a solid fan base across the world. Nayo’s been picked up by newspapers and national magazines which have labelled her the new Sade. It’s not a bad description of her music, though luckily the sound lacks Sade’s sheer misery.  

The songwriter lists a diverse assortment of influences including Astrid Gilberto, Sting, Madonna and Bob Marley. She tells me her musical and lyrical inspiration has come from an international and cosmopolitan upbringing. She remembers the point that kicked off her song writing at the age of seven. “We came to London on holiday and I heard Madonna’s Holiday on the radio. I couldn’t explain what I was feeling and my mum didn’t understand what I was so excited about. When I got back home, I tried to recreate the songs I’d heard”.

Nayo always wanted to be a songwriter more than a singer and although success means writing lyrics with a team, she still takes the lead in writing her songs. “Collaborating with other people can be difficult. When you want to talk about an issue, you know how you feel, but someone else has completely different ideas about it. You feel like it has nothing to do with them and can be frustrating. It’s a conflict of interest. My style is to work with melody and lyrics together, so I work well with people that focus on the musical side, people who think chords.”

Business girl

From the way Nayo speaks (we’re having a conversation about her audience demographics), it’s easy to see a business mind sat inside the creative thinking. She graduated in business studies before she started her music career, a slightly unusual career path, but this focus is having a positive effect on sales.

“I didn’t expect such a wide audience to be interested in my music.” Originally, the single was specifically marketed to the African community but it was soon obvious that the music had much wider appeal, which led to a change in strategy. “The Times asked for an exclusive download deal and now I’ve got people from the Ukraine, Iceland and America downloading my tunes since. Actually, I probably ought to get over there and perform.”

Nayo’s proud of her African roots and while she calls Nigeria home, her time in different countries means she labels herself cosmopolitan and unable to live in just one place for too long. “One thing I notice about London is there are a lot of Nigerians in the same area. It’s good to see people can be labelled as Nigerians or Ghanaians here; in America everybody’s just an ‘African’. The music’s more diverse here. The scene in Nigeria is mainly hip-hop now; I’m not going to walk down the street and get noticed.”

Although she’s modest about her growing popularity, she’s very aware of how she’s becoming a brand and involved in the publicity process. “I really want it to happen naturally. I thought about getting a MySpacer or someone that manages your MySpace, but I didn’t want to see ‘ I want to kill Nayo for trying to add me 15 times, I hope she dies’. It’s not a natural process. Facebook is better because you can decide to become a fan of something that you really like. And I don’t want serial killers after me.”

What’s next for the modest young soul singer? “I’m busy preparing with the band for a TV show on Black Entertainment Network. It’s like a Nayo special.” she giggles bashfully. Estelle’s going to be pleased, we expect to see more of this black soul singer all over the press.

African Girl is out now.
www.nayomusic.com