How Jealousy, Diabolical Attacks Nearly Made Me Quit Music – Salawa Abeni

Waka music veteran Salawa Abeni has spoken about the difficult experiences she faced at the beginning of her career.

The musician said jealousy and alleged spiritual attacks from some senior musicians almost made her quit music.

The 65-year-old singer, widely recognised as the “Queen of Waka Music,” started her professional career in 1976 after releasing her debut album, “Late General Murtala Ramat Mohammed”.

During an interview on Channels Television’s “Rubbin’ Minds”, Abeni said her early years in the industry were marked by several troubling experiences.

She recalled moments when she suddenly lost her voice and, on some occasions, vomited blood.

The singer said her passion for music started when she was nine, stressing that she often performed with older musicians who invited her to join their shows.

She said, “So they (the elderly ones) would sing before I got there. But when it was time for me, they would give me a stool to stand on so my mouth could reach the microphone.

“So when it was time for me to sing, my brother, my voice would go. I couldn’t sing. Sometimes I would even vomit blood. But what could I do? It’s a long journey. There are a lot of obstacles. You know, how do I say it in Yoruba… in English, it’s jealousy. Yes. Like, ‘You, this small girl, who is your parent?

“Where did you come from?’ Let me give examples. Let’s say you’re a musician and I’m a musician. So you would be singing before I arrived, or I would be singing before you arrived. Then people would be shouting my name, ‘The young girl, Salawa Abeni, has arrived!’ People would leave where they were to come to my side. We would be facing each other. But that is jealousy. It’s a strong thing to say people are diabolical. Well, that is it. That is exactly it.”

The singer also alleged that some of the challenges went beyond ordinary professional rivalry, describing some incidents as “diabolical.”

Salawa Abeni recalled one performance where her band waited for another group to finish before taking the stage.

When it was eventually her turn to perform, she said the equipment connecting the microphones to the amplifier malfunctioned, making it difficult for the audience to hear her voice.

“Diabolical is not superstition. Let me take you back to one experience. They would sing before I arrived, but my band was there too, so we decided to wait for each other. When they started their own performance, I sat down, and we watched.

“When it was my turn to sing, our amplifier back then used to connect all the microphones to bring out our voice, our tone, so that nobody could listen to me, nobody could hear me. That’s another one again,” she said

Abeni said she experienced another strange incident during a different performance.

According to her, she was sitting close to another performer when rain suddenly began falling directly around the spot where she was standing to sing.

“Another time, we went together to play. As you sat, I sat down here. When it was my turn, as you were sitting here and I was sitting here, I couldn’t sit down because I was very small; if I sat down, my mouth wouldn’t reach the microphone. So I had to stand up. Oh my God, from my own side, as we sat beside each other, very close like this, rain suddenly started falling right where I was standing, so that people who wanted to watch Salawa Abeni would run away. It is tough,” she added.

Reflecting on those experiences, Salawa Abeni said the journey was difficult but she continued with her career despite the obstacles.

Over the years, she has released several songs and established herself as one of Nigeria’s leading waka musicians.

Some of her well-known works include “Iba Omode Iba Agba”, “Shooting Stars”, “We Are The Children”, “Maradonna”, “Cheer Up” and “Beware”.

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