Asa is one of those artistes you listen to and most times you see yourself in the song, her songs are like a mirror, they reflect the society, our society. She is a social critique, an analyst and one that is proud of her root, motherland! This is the pride she reflects in her song ‘Eyo’ one of the tracks on her third studio album.
Asa comes from an unfamiliar terrain in the song, a terrain that gives the song a glamour albeit an uncharacteristic terrain – though not entirely unfamiliar. Usually, she sings about love, heartbreaks, bad governance or anything she thinks is deleterious to the society, never have I heard her sing about the beautiful things in the country. Not that she only sings about the negatives, but when she sings and the song is about the whole society, it is usually to correct an absurdity. Thus seeing her come from a whole new perspective is apparently elating. However, typical of Asa the song is not the type you listen to once and you grasp the whole thing she is trying to say.
Despite the overbearing American culture which threatens minority cultures all over the world, one aspect of our national life that still lurks around is the communalistic living passed down from generations before us. In European countries, the societal values seem to have disintegrated to the extent that it is said to be a situation of each man for himself, a fact which apparently will sound strange to someone coming from Nigeria. It is this motif that drives the song ‘Eyo,’ and it is with it that Asa clothes the whole song.
An enchanting aspect of Lagos is the conspicuous life and liveliness that abounds extravagantly in the city, an enthralling factor which subsists nowhere else. Not only is it lively, but it is full of energy as well, an energy unparalleled by any other. As a visitor, it will be an understatement to say that you will be awestruck. It is this energetic life and the apparent liveliness that a Lagosian sojourning in a foreign land is apparently going to miss. Asa, a Lagosian herself probably employed her experiences outside Lagos and how desperately she desired to get back home while writing the song.
No place like home they say, anywhere you go, your home remains your home still. It is this point that Asa enunciates in the song. Nigeria is believed to be the land of the happy, everyone smiles even in distress, to suffer and to smile is not strange around here. Contrary to this happy go lucky philosophy of Nigerians, when people travel outside the country, they find it unwelcoming and melancholic, thereby compounding their frustration with the sad land.
The song ‘Eyo’ with an outstanding clarity pays a tribute to Lagos. The song unlike other songs about Lagos or Nigeria does not attempt to ‘market’ Lagos, but for those who are around Lagos, it stirs up a feeling of deep affection for the city and for those who have never been lucky to have been welcome to the economic city, it stirs up a desire to go to Lagos and experience the deep happy communal life Asa so readily flaunts.

Source : http://www.naijadopereview.com/2016/02/27/asas-eyo-a-tribute-to-lagos/

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