Tiwa Savage Makes Shocking Revelations of How Tee Billz Saved Her

Tiwa Savage has revealed what many people did not know: that her husband Tee Billz, who is regarded as one of the bad boyz of the Entertainment scene actually saved her from be sexually abused by figureheads in the industry.

Tiwa made the revelation while she spoke at the Youth Enterprise Conference 2016 which held in Lagos, the ‘Eminado’ singer dished on how she started in Nigeria, how social media has worked for her, and having to navigate an industry reportedly rife with sexual harassment.

On why she relocated to Nigeria to grow her musical career:

I told myself ‘why should I wait for someone like Beyonce to do Afro beat songs while I am from Nigeria, let me go back and do this myself?’ I watched videos from Mo Hits and P Square and I noticed there weren’t many female artistes.

That was when I decided to pack everything and move to Nigeria. I had a good job as a songwriter with Babyface at that time but I sold my car, my belongings and came to Nigeria.

My first performance at Kennis Easter Fiesta was a disaster! I was stoned with pure water bags because I was singing English songs and blowing too much phonetics. “I ran back to my husband who was my boyfriend at that time and cried ‘my people are not accepting me, I don’t know what to do.’ He told me to start singing songs that they could relate with. And that was how I came up with ‘Kele Kele Love’.”

On how social media has worked for her image:

Social media is extremely fantastic for us artistes. It makes you closer to your audience. It has become a great source of revenue for artistes. Some companies want you to endorse their products and they call you. I have over a million followers on Twitter and the same goes for Insta­gram. With YouTube, you get paid for views but it all boils down to building your brand. “It is not every day that you will have a hit song but the day you don’t have one, your brand will sustain you.”

On how she avoided being sexually harassed in the industry:

“A lot of times they said that they wanted to help me but actually they wanted me to do ‘something’ with them. Luckily I had a crazy boyfriend who ended up being my husband. He just shot them down.

If you are really talented and good at what you do and you have God behind you, don’t give in to that kind of temptation. I guarantee you that your talent will make a way for you. The same people will be the ones calling and you will even get more than you ever imagined if you don’t give in.”

Source – BellaNaija