by Wilfred Okiche

It has been a phenomenal year for Nigerian born soul diva, Asa. Her sophomore album, ‘Beautiful Imperfection’ released late in 2010 carried over into 2011 and was one of the most played albums of the year.

She cut a beautiful video for the disc’s second single ‘Why can’t we’ and had us singing along to the catchy, bubbly chorus. For some artistes, this level of success is more than enough, but not for the artiste whose real name is Bukola Elemide.

She released the U.S version of ‘Beautiful Imperfection’ with ‘Why can’t we’ serving as lead single to rave reviews and the album entered the Billboard official world music charts where it peaked at number 3.

She also embarked on a successful tour that saw her performing in countries as far as Belgium, Brazil and South Africa. She performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival  and was featured on the CNN program, African Voices.

The soul diva was also the darling of the press as she covered Y! magazine’s new decade issue in January, Belgian magazine, Victoire’s June issue and recently was featured in Elle Brazil’s December issue.

Her album ‘Beautiful Imperfection’  received good reviews across the globe and emerged the iTunes Music Rewind 2011 pick for Contemporary World Music Album of the Year in the U.S.

To cap it all, she has topped news network, CNN’s list of the most popular African music acts working today. Level of fame achieved, fan base and concerts played in are just some of the criteria CNN took notice of in drawing up a list that includes 2face, Nneka, Senegalese Youssou N’dour and the late Cesaria Evora from Cape Verde.

While we congratulate and celebrate with the ‘Dreamer girl’, we urge her to bring her band home and headline her own concert here. Now wouldn’t that be something?

Asa: Live in Lagos

Some experience!

Oluwapelumi