News reaching Entertainment Rendezvous has it that Nigerian highlife musician, Flavour? N’Abania has signed a record deal with a south African Record Label.
This is coming in the heat of the diplomatic row between the two countries over the unlawful deportation of its citizens.
According to Soul Candi marketing head, Lucky Mphilo, “Soul Candi Records is over the moon after signing the highlife superstar. This is definitely a big one for our label since Flavour is currently a hit on the continent, particularly in West Africa where his music genre, highlife, has long been popular,”
“With this deal we hope to make our foray into the West African market, which has not yet been tapped into by a South African music label.”
He said the fact that Nigerian films are widely accepted in South Africa was an indication that there was a market for West African music locally.
“We will repackage his album and add new songs. We are quite confident we will crack it with this one,” he said. “Flavor’s music has exploded in Africa and we are thrilled to be his home here in South Africa,” Soul Candi label manager Allan Nicoll said.
Flavour signed with Soul Candi last week, paving the way for his album, ‘Uplifted’, to be sold in South Africa.
N’Abania’s popular Nwa Baby was inspired by a classic highlife tune called Sawa Sawa Le by Rex Lawson, one of the all-times highlife stars from Nigeria.
The highlife genre originated in Ghana as a blend of brass band music with the more danceable and less established rhythms of rumba and calypso in the 1930s.
Highlife is popular in Nigeria, Ghana and neighbouring countries and is said to have paved the way for the better known Afro-beat style.
Some other musicians who have enjoyed the same feat are D’banj, PSquare and so on.