Despite her extraordinary success in Afrobeats music, Tiwa Savage has long harbored a secret aspiration: to pursue a career in acting. <\/p>\n
At 44, the multifaceted, award-winning Nigerian artist has transformed her dreams into reality. On May 10, her much-anticipated debut film, \u201cWater & Garri,\u201d hit Prime Video, marking her leap into acting. <\/p>\n
Executive produced by Savage and directed by her long-time music video director Meji Alabi, \u201cWater & Garri\u201d is a collaboration between Everything Savage, Unbound Studios, and JM Films. <\/p>\n
The concept was born from Savage\u2019s idea to create a visual album for her 2021 EP of the same name. Because of that, it \u201cinitially it was only supposed to be like a short film,\u201d Savage said, \u201cand then it grew on its own and took its own identity.\u201d <\/p>\n
Written by Comfort Emmanuel, the film is set in a fictional town on the Cape Coast of Ghana and follows a determined fashion designer named Aisha (Savage) who returns to her hometown due to a family tragedy after a decade in the US. However, upon her return home, she finds her once familiar surroundings altered by escalating violence and heightened tensions. <\/p>\n
As she reconnects with her family, old friends, and a former flame, Aisha must confront her past and face the guilt of what she left behind \u2013 an experience Savage says drew parallels to her own life. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe both felt like we had to go somewhere to chase our dreams,\u201d said Savage, who spent two weeks in intensive training in London to prepare for the role of Aisha. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just to break me out of my shell, to break me out of Tiwa Savage and just empty me out \u2013 and then just allow me to be or embody like a whole different character,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
As the production of the film pressed forward, Savage didn\u2019t only shed her superstar persona, she moved on from the initial <\/strong>musical inspiration for the film, instead opting to create an original soundtrack for the movie. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was supposed to include the first five songs on the EP; by the time we finished filming, it just took on a whole different identity, and we just created a whole new soundtrack,\u201d the singer explained. <\/p>\n The album served as a platform for Savage to push her vocal boundaries and delve into new musical genres. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been boxed to a certain sound because I\u2019ve done it for over 10 years,\u201d Savage said. <\/p>\n The 10-song soundtrack included collaborations with French Nigerian singer Asa on the folk song \u201cEmotions,\u201d American gospel artist Zacardi Cortez on \u201cI Need You,\u201d and Richard Bona & The Cavemen on the jazz track \u201cWater & Garri.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cCreating the soundtrack allowed me to explore those different genres, and I think I didn\u2019t feel like I would have been able to do that as Tiwa Savage,\u201d she said. \u201c(So) I was able to explore those pockets of my talent.\u201d <\/strong> <\/p>\n The singer admits she has always loved Jazz, R&B, and gospel music, but after acting in \u201cWater & Garri\u201d and performing the soundtrack, she says <\/strong>has discovered how much she has grown as an artist and feels encouraged to be limitless in her creativity. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not limiting myself to the sound that people know me for; I\u2019ve definitely grown even in a performance \u2013 like I used to have a lot of dances and do routines,\u201d the singer-turned-actress explained. <\/p>\n \u201cNow I think I\u2019m more about vocal delivery,\u201d she added. \u201cGoing forward from that \u2026 I feel like I can do anything.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite her extraordinary success in Afrobeats music, Tiwa Savage has long harbored a secret aspiration:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}