Tiwa Savage is pure class. The Queen of African pop music is still on course to maximize the singles off her sophomore album “R.E.D”, and what we have next is the video for ‘Rewind’, one of the standout tracks from the full-length project.
While you can’t make a very strong and convincing case for the penetration of the project and the acceptance of many songs off it, a few had gone on to be suggestive hits. ‘African Waist’, ‘if I start to talk’, ‘Bad’ and ‘Standing ovation’ have performed admirably in the market, with their videos enjoying good traction.
In 2016, Tiwa Savage’s strength and stamina has been sorely tested to breaking point. Her personal and marital issues still remain the peak moment of African entertainment in 2016, and kudos have to go to her in bouncing back from such trying episodes. She suffered a miscarriage, lost a baby, lost her husband, and had to battle to come out from what would have been the death of her career.
But she’s pushed on. A deal with Roc Nation added a layer of brightness on the year, with the singer signed up to Jay Z’s firm for an international management deal. She’s also starred in a number of brand campaigns, maintained her endorsement engagements, while performing all over the world.
‘Rewind’ the latest song to be made a single from the “R.E.D” album is already a gem. But it is the video which seals the deal and elevates it to ‘dope’ status.
Just as “If I start to talk” so perfectly accomplished, ‘Rewind’ distills the sonic magic of 1980’s Highlife, and places it in a contemporary context. The percussion and drum-heavy track is accompanied by a wonderfully complimentary set of visuals, with Tiwa Savage ‘queening’ once again as the leading love interest of Emmanuel Ikubese, the former macho king and Mr Nigeria, while essentially having a having a tug at all the emotional strings of viewers.
With ‘Rewind’ Tiwa serves up a friendly reminder why she's one of the most enthralling entertainers in music today. Unparalleled showmanship and branding aside, Tiwas’ ability to cherry-pick the best parts of her audio releases and turn these elements into something visually fresh and relevant is a skill few artists have mastered. She is aided with cinematography by Clarence Peters of Capital Dreams Pictures.
A lot more female singers have recently attempted to attain the same feat with branding and an infusion of colours to create the perfect audio-visual art. But they have either failed miserably to strike the rue balance, or sacrificed music for visual and vice versa. But where they have struggled, Tiwa glides and sashays with ease, tweaking the best parts of her musical influences to create a product that comes across as neither rushed, forced nor shoddily contrived.
No one knows when her next single would arrive, But Tiwa seems more focused and polished than ever, meaning that ‘Rewind’ is likely to be just one of many 2016 late smash singles from the Mavin superstar.