Salawa Abeni skipped Western education to play Waka, starting as a teenager and dominating the genre for decades, without any close rival. I saw her perform at different phases of her career, even later transforming waka to Bollywood fusion, to Jazz, to elements of Fuji, under the influence of General Kollington Ayinla whom she married in adult life. Salawa increased the tempo of waka music, moving it from listening for pleasure to intense dancing. If a party is boring, inject Salawa's waka and you get everyone to get up and dance. Salawa will bring out the sweat in you.
Salawa kept fidelity to a collage form, a difficult singing style in which you abandon a theme, and adopt a set of topics and issues, from one sentence to another. Most musicians cannot do a collage, as it is just very difficult. A collage will also task your band boys and singers as you must be extremely attentive to the lead vocalist. You cannot even practice for a recording session and keep to it, as the lead vocalist derives the strength in spontaneity and not in rigidity. If you try a collage in oral communication, people will think you are drunk!
Islam produced waka music, just like were, that I once told you about while introducing Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister. It used to be said that were is for men, waka is for women. And the Ijebu people have been credited for creating waka, based on the fact that the indomitable Alhaja Batile Alake, an Ijebu, was the first to produce an album and to penetrate social circles. Now came the extraordinary woman, full of energy and speed who released her first hit in 1976. Thereafter, non-stop, and each album was better than the previous. In 1992, His Imperial Majesty, the Alaafin of Oyo, crowned Salawa Abeni as the "Queen of Waka", the only queen.
This day belongs to Her Excellency, the Queen of Waka, and the First Lady of Fuji.
Alhaja Queen Salawa Abeni And Her Waka Funky Modernizers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC37EEe4HV8
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