The first time i heard about Yinka Davies i must have been about...wait am i about to give out my age? well i was very young, i remember i sat glued to the Television watching the very popular NTA programme Newsline when they featured this young lady in a wheel chair, what struck me most about her was her high spirits, even though she was in a very precarious situation she was full of life and spoke excitedly describing the events that led to her accident and how she had fared ever since, she had been in an accident that fractured her leg , she was asked to sing and as soon as she opened her mouth to sing we were like what! my family was surprised that such a big voice could come from such a tiny woman...that woman was Yinka Davies. If we are talking about second chances then this singer should probably be it's brand model. badly injured in a deadly accident in 1994 that forced her to take a break from music for four years, she stayed optimistic believing that she would have the opportunity again of show casing her God given talent .
If Uk born artiste Estelle was ever looking for someone to bond with in Nigeria my first choice would beYinka Davies, albeit Yinka has been described as being in the same league as the legendary Eartha Kitt, She and Estelle both share that unique gift of being able to blend into every musical niche they find themselves, for instance did you know that Yinka Davies raps? I kid you not she actually rapped on one of Shina Peter's songs and of course that powerful voice of hers can take her in any angle she desires, that must be why she was able to do back up for such Diverse artists like Alex O, Blakky, Esse Agese, Mike Okri and a host of others. Personally i believe this artist is much more comfortable singing such powerful traditional songs like her most popular Eko Ile, her vocals in that song is so powerful that if you are listening to the song with a pair of high quality head phones you might feel as if your ear drums might bust, she also is a very good actress , i remember sitting in the audience as she took us on an emotional journey as a character in the Vagina Monologues.and now as a Reality show queen judging talent on the Nigerian Idol.
The fact that she has not attained the commercial success she deserves is quite surprising, but finally she has dropped her first Album beautifully titled Black Chiffon a variant of afro-jazz with eclectic range of influences that Yinka Davies has come to represent, responding on why her latest release took so much time she responded "quality takes time" .
There was no mistake when this artiste won voice of the decade in the 2007 Nigerian Music Award, i was intrigued with the article her close friend Weird Mc wrote about her, it was not different from what a lot of her close friends and fellow artistes say about her, She is refreshingly different and full of life, even when she was in injured she still had and attended parties, extremely talented and dedicated to her arts at 40 with two children i believe we have not even seen the best of Yinka Davies, a woman who has seen it all, survived through the worst and come out more determined as ever to bring us with quality music.
Watch her perform Live below and judge for yourself don' t just take my word for it.
Spot on Dakky! She is an icon, and truely Nigerian!
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