prison. and bbc reporter is investigating a man who used local children to film personalised greetings, some containing racist comments. he now faces caught in malawi. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, sarah montague. my guest today is a hugely successful afrobeat star. the nigerian omah lay is just 25, but he s broken into western markets, partly because of a collaboration with the canadian singerjustin bieber. he s here in london on a world tour now. afrobeats emerged from afrobeat, political music, a way to address social change that was pioneered by the legendary fela kuti. the latest incarnation of afrobeats is less politically charged. omah lay sings about love, heartbreak and longing. with western megastars like ed sheeran and madonna tapping into this musical style, what does it mean for the way that afrobeats will evolve? omah lay, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. fela kuti described his afrobeat music as, a fusion and combination of highlife,
that was pioneered by the legendary fela kuti. the latest incarnation of afrobeats is less politically charged. omah lay sings about love, heartbreak and longing. with western megastars like ed sheeran and madonna tapping into this musical style, what does it mean for the way that afrobeats will evolve? omah lay, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. fela kuti described his afrobeat music as, a fusion and combination of highlife, jazz, funk, psych rock, salsa, black power, anti colonial and anti corruption politics. how would you describe your music? i think it s probably the same thing, but i don t know if i m going to say politics, anti corruption, i don t know, but every other thing is the same. it s just that i do it differently now because, you know, music is different now. and, yeah, highlife is still the same, afro is still the same, the elements that makes afrobeat is still the same, it s just that, you know, it s a new world and ijust do it how we do it now in this, ou
in a televised address, he said more than 600 cases of collaboration and treason have been opened against law enforcement officials. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk with me, sarah montague. my guest today is a hugely successful afrobeat star. the nigerian 0mah lay is just 25, but he s broken into western markets, partly because of a collaboration with the canadian singerjustin bieber. he s here in london on a world tour now. afrobeats emerged from afrobeat, political music, a way to address social change that was pioneered by the legendary fela kuti. the latest incarnation of afrobeats is less politically charged. 0mah lay sings about love, heartbreak and longing. with western megastars like ed sheeran and madonna tapping into this musical style, what does it mean for the way that afrobeats will evolve? 0mah lay, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. fela kuti described his afrobeat music as, a fusion and combination of highlife, jazz, funk
afrobeat, political music, a way to address social change that was pioneered by the legendary fela kuti. the latest incarnation of afrobeats is less politically charged. omah lay sings about love, heartbreak and longing. with western megastars like ed sheeran and madonna tapping into this musical style, what does it mean for the way that afrobeats will evolve? omah lay, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. fela kuti described his afrobeat music as, a fusion and combination of highlife, jazz, funk, psych rock, salsa, black power, anti colonial and anti corruption politics. how would you describe your music? i think it s probably the same thing, but i don t know if i m going to say politics, anti corruption, i don t know, but every other thing is the same. it s just that i do it differently now because, you know, music is different now. and, yeah, highlife is still the same, afro is still the same, the elements that makes afrobeat is still the same, it s just that, you know, it
so, ijust want to make music for people to feel better. but foryou, i mean, from rapping on the streets in that marine base to moving to lagos, to producing music that s listened to around the world i mean, here you are in london, you re performing here that s been a remarkable ascent. yeah, that s growth, that s growth, and i think all that came from the growth of afrobeats in general. yeah, all that came from the growth of afrobeats in general. and i m just i m just blessed to be one of the people who is here right now when afrobeat is doing all of this madness. so, what you re talking about, picking up cultural influences, is that obvious from the album just out, boy alone? ok, so the album is a whole, like i said, this is a series of my experiences, how i ve been feeling in the past two years. and i realised that i ve been feeling down a lot the past two