Tiwa Savage’s produced film, the Prime Video original Water and Garri will begin streaming on May 10, 2024. But she said in a new interview with ABC that working on the project, which was directed by Meji Alabi, saw her put her “boss lady” on.
“Executive producing was like me just putting my boss hat on and trying to be a boss lady in all aspects of my life. It was fun and it was stressful doing that and also starring in it. But it just showed me that I can do anything I put my mind to. There are so many things that I have dreams of accomplishing and now I’m really motivated,” she said.
She also spoke about why she wanted to go into acting and why the movie bears the same title as her 2021 EP.
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“I've always wanted to do acting. I've always wanted to do movies. Actually, that was my first love before music. So it felt like a full circle moment for me. I just felt it was time for me to finally get into that. I never wanted to let go of music, so it's a great way for me to still embody that.”
Savage said that she was drawn to the film because it was told from a female perspective. Water and Garri follows a Nigerian fashion designer who returns to the country after building a successful career in the US.
“It's a story first of all told by a female from a female point of view. I'm always an advocate for that and I don't think we have enough of that in the space of Nollywood and just in Africa in general. We do have but I don’t think we have enough. It's refreshing for me. It's a story about love, female empowerment,” she said.
Savage also spoke about the rise of Afrobeats in the West.
“I feel like genres like RnB, jazz, soul all originated from Africa, so it's a full circle moment to have Afrobeats having its moment right now. And then hear elements of it from the rhythm to the soul in the music. I felt like we were losing a bit of that in commercial music these days. It's good to see that African music is getting its shine again,” she said.
Watch the interview below: