Almost a week after the 53rd Grammy Awards ceremony, winners, understandably, would still be celebrating. Those with high hopes and who came close to clinching the prize, must be ruing their losses, or grateful that at least, they can now add the Grammy-nominee prefix or suffix, as it applies, to their names.



One of such is budding songstress, Tiwatope Savage who almost joined a growing list of Nigerians including percussionist, Sikiru Adepoju; Sade Adu; and Seal that have held aloft the Grammy statuette.



Tiwa Savage as she is more popularly known was not nominated on the strength of her singing skills but as part of the writers of Collard Greens and Cornbread, a bluesy song off the Back to Me album of American singer, Fantasia, which was nominated in the Best R n B category. The award was won by John Legend and The Roots for the album, Wake Up. Savage was also a backup singer on the recording of the song and actually has her own version of it.



Shortly before she travelled to the United States for the awards last week, Savage said, “Whatever the outcome is, I will always be a Grammy nominee, so I am celebrating already. God, you are awesome.” As it is though, she has inadvertently been inducted into Nigerian Hall of Fame of Grammy nominees hitherto occupied by Afro beat musician, Femi Anikulapo Kuti and Juju music maestro, King Sunny Ade.



God has indeed been awesome in the life of the 30-year-old singer. When she was 11, her family migrated to England where she discovered her love for music. Her first taste of the big stage was rather fortuitous. In an earlier interview, she said, “George Michael was looking for a background vocalist for a show where he was to perform at the Wembley Arena in front of about 80,000 people, and someone who had watched and heard me sing at a local talent show recommended me to his musical director. So, his musical director put me on the stage with him.” Since then, she has done backup for a variety of artistes including Blu Cantrell, Lemar, Chaka Khan and Kelly Clarkson among others



After graduating from the University of Kent with a degree in Business Administration, Savage started working with the Royal Bank of Scotland. It was here she got the call to join Mary J Blige’s band that was going on tour three days after. She made it to the tour with the acclaimed American R n B queen. Then, in 2007, she sang her way to the last 24 among hundreds of thousands of wannabes in the X-Factor, the British music talent hunt show that spawned American Idol. Fortunately, in her pursuit of a wholesome solo musical career, she got a scholarship to further hone her skills at the Berklee College of Music, Massachusetts, USA.



While pursuing her solo career, Savage, who is signed to SONY/ATV as a writer, continues to garner recognition and acceptance in the United States and beyond for penning emotive and soul-stirring lyrics for among other artistes, Babyface, Jaicko, Snoop Dogg and Akon. Yet, Savage’s biggest challenge is conquering the Nigerian music scene. She says, “I would like to take the Nigerian music industry to the next level. I dream to have my own recording label later. I want to be able to help other artistes and generally change the face of music in Nigeria.” With the single, Kele Kele love, enjoying appreciable rotation on radio and television, Savage seems to be getting her victory strategy right.


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I'm very proud of this lady as she's doing Naija proud despite the hickups suffixed to the name Nigeria. Big ups, gurl! The sky is your starting point.

Tiwa Savage was never close to winning any grammy.

Amongst all those mentioned only Femi Kuti and Sunny Ade are Nigerians.

Seal,Tiwa and Sade are other nationals of Nigerian origin.If you move deeper then you have Chamillionaire,Wale,Ne-Yo,Lemar,Taio Cruz,Taye Diggs and tens of others.