Nneka turns Cupid with a uniting message of love for Chicago on Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2009, at the Double Door

By Selena Fragassi
Published: February 16th, 2010 | 11:45pm

“My message is of love. If you can identify, correct. If you can’t identify, correct.” On a special Valentine’s Day show in Chicago, there was no shortage of the word love from Nneka and no short feelings of love from the elbow-to-elbow crowd that was beyond smitten with the Nigerian charmer.

The room at the Double Door was hot ‘n’ heavy, fired up by the singer’s emotionally and politically charged messages and heavy with sorrow for the lurking shadows of her country that she so passionately illuminated in songs like VIP (Vagabonds in Power) which blasted the talking heads in the Niger Delta region for the corruption of the nation’s oil industry (“for your American information”). In fact, a number of the attendees were of her Nigerian kinship (rare for a place that had posters of upcoming shows by the Reverend Horton Heat and Evan Dando) and happily applauded when the young import spoke in the native Igbo language.

Like many of the powerful singers Nneka has been compared to on her recent album, and first U.S. release, Concrete Jungle (Epic) — Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, and India.Arie to name a few — she has become a steeled voice for those who’ve grown tired of the shallow R&B and hate-mongering rap that is so often force-fed, but yet is just as accessible for a diverse crowd that aligns with the yin and yang of her music and message. Wearing a sweatshirt that declared, “Africa is the Future,” Nneka succeeded on this night like she always does, by defending optimisim and hope and the idea that “change is destined to come as long as you believe.”

For someone so small in stature, the 28-year-old stands head and shoulders above her contemporaries with a voice that simultaneously could calm brewing tensions and incite a riot. Goosebumps is a petty word for the physical reaction she incites, a feeling that literally exploded with the quiet piano ballad that introduced her single “Heartbeat.” This song is the epitome of the performance caliber of this rising legend — at once, you can feel her rhythm while hearing her words. One and both become the same for a dynamic chemical reaction only few singers will ever achieve.

While Nneka can rap, scat, chirp like a nightingale, and sting like a bee with sharp-as-tack vocals, songs like “Focus” and “Uncomfortable Truth” make the A-team through the expert musicians supporting her who, together, provide the perfect soundtrack for her universal performance. This buzzed-about mini-tour through America has made one thing certain: If you see one artist on this summer’s Lilith Fair tour, make sure it’s Nneka.

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Epic Records