Asa to Cobhams: ‘If I marry you…I’ll cook for you’

Asa to Cobhams: ‘If I marry you…I’ll cook for you’

Monday, May 2, 2016 3:19 pm


Asa Live in concert

Asa Live in concert

By Funsho Arogundade

 

The night of Sunday, 1 May was a spectacular evening for Nigerian international soul singer, Asa and thousands of her fans who besieged the Convention Centre of Eko Hotels & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos venue of her maiden concert in Lagos tagged “Asa Live In Lagos”.

One of the highlights of the night was when songwriter/music producer par excellence Cobhams Asuquo, who produced Asa’s debut album that launched him into international stardom, joined her on stage for a collaboration.

As Cobhams took over the piano, excited Asa cracked everyone’s rib with a joke, saying even though she is ever busy, if he (Cobhams) marries her she will cook for him. And the hall erupted.

As a fillip to Asa’s love and appreciation to Cobhams, the visually-impaired multi-talented producer and songwriter was the only act who performed with Asa, the headliner during the 2-hour gig.

Afterwards, the duo commenced their performances and did a cover of Beyonce’s “Halo” which exposed their amazing musical synergy.

It was an enchanting evening of absolute beautiful music and entertainment as Asa later on gave an electrifying performance with different songs from all her albums.

At a point, Asa, in her usual ways, danced barefooted, sang, played instruments, spoke to her audience and gave everything.

Prior to this, Asa had opened her performance with the ballad “Awe” off her eponymous first album. The excited audience cheered endlessly and sang along, word for word, line after line.

The response from the audience got louder as Asa delivered intense performances of her evergreen classic including “Satan Be Gone”, followed by “Eyo”, “Bed of Stone”, “Fire on the Mountain”, “The One Who Never Comes” and “Bibanke”.

At some point, she picked up a trumpet and displayed a mastery of the instrument that simply stunned the audience. As soon as the hugely popular “Fire On The Mountain” came on, the audience rose to their feet and sang out loud. “Bibanke” came next and the momentum continued.

The concert was anchored by veteran On-air-personality, Olisa Adibua, who declared open the gig at exactly 7.45pm.

Before Asa mounted the stage, all the opening acts at the concert have delivered amazing performances which prepped the guests to a night of live music and deep soulful songs.

From Isaac Geralds to Kaline and Falana, they made the night worth its while. Bez raised the bar as he also made the crowd go wild with some of his hits including “Stop Pretending”, “Zuciya Daya” and “Stupid Song”.

With a short break for guests to have light drink, the night roared back as International soul singer, Rachel Kerr stormed the stage and thrilled with two of her songs “For You” and “Hold My Hand”.

As the night worn out, most of the guests appeared satisfied with Asa on her first ever concert in Lagos.

The Asa concert not just raised the bar, but has set the bar perhaps too high for others.

The organisers paid a lot of attention to detail on the need to give great sound. The hall was packed out without those regular big tables to occupy space. Emphasis was very much less on decor, so the guests paid attention to the music.

Babajide Fadoju, a media aide to Oyo State governor Abiola Ajumobi who was at the concert said: “Asa has defined what a concert really is. Dear Nigerian Artists,buy the DVD recording of #AsaLiveInLagos Learn Zero margin for mediocrity.”

A fan enthralled by Asa’s performance tweeted: “Kai…i don’t know that i can enjoy anyone performing again after last night. She gave 100%. I just want to send her flowers.”

Another tweeted, “Asa didn’t have dancers or pyrotechnics. Just her amazing self, amazing music, amazing band plus impeccable sound and lights.”

 

 


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