NNEKA WILL SING AT WROCŁAW’S STARY KLASZTOR

Date change: the concert originally announced for 11 April 2024 was rescheduled to 15 September 2024.

Compared to Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu

Hip-hop legend Nas calls her “amazing” and “an incredible artist”. The Sunday Times praised her debut as “as good as The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”. And now here she is: award-winning Nigerian singer-songwriter Nneka.

Born and raised in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria, Nneka spent her childhood and early adult life growing up in Nigeria's oil city. Originally from Anambra State, Nneka is Ibo. Nneka Lucia Egbuna means “mother is supreme” in the Ibo language.

In her early twenties, NNEKA first travelled to Germany to experience another life and discover her German roots. She stayed to earn a degree in anthropology and archaeology at Hamburg University. While studying, she honed her singing and songwriting. “I funded my studies by performing on Germany’s underground scene,” she says. “I have always written, from a very young age, simply recording my thoughts and experiences and many prayers.”

Her politically engaged lyrics soon established her as one of Africa’s most powerful voices. Nneka’s lyrics explore many social issues, including maternal love, love for the divine creator, the world’s “broken heart” and the pursuit of justice. Working tirelessly over the past decade, Nneka has released 5 previous albums: Victim of Truth, concrete jungle in the USA, No Longer At Ease and Soul Is Heavy, as well as an EP entitled my fairy tales. Her single Heartbeat [2009] earned her a place in the UK Top Twenty and led to a collaboration with Nas, while Rita Ora also used it in her UK number-one hit R.I.P. Hip-hop artist Drake likewise used her track in the original version of R.I.P.

Nneka continues to perform and electrify audiences worldwide alongside artists such as The Roots, Burna boy, Tuface idibia, Groundation, Seun kuti, Erykah Badu, Gnarls Barkley, Nas and Damian Marley. She won the MOBO Award for Best African Act in 2009 and recorded “Viva Africa” for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, as well as appearing on The David Letterman Show and BET’s 106 & Park. In 2014, Nneka joined the judging panel for the 4th season of ‘Nigerian Idol’. In 2016, she joined the women’s collective Les Amazones de l’Afrique. Together with other African artists, including Kandia Kouyaté, Angélique Kidjo, Mamani Keita, Rokia Koné, Mariam Doumbia and Mariam Koné, she raised her voice against domestic violence, female genital mutilation and sexual abuse.

Nneka also continues touring different countries, spreading a message of love and peace among all people, regardless of their backgrounds.

Nneka’s strong social conscience also led her to co-found The Rope Foundation in 2012 with Sierra Leonean Ahmed Nyeie [aka Genda]. The charity provides a platform for young men and women to express themselves through art. Its latest workshops focused on working with women who had experienced sexual abuse at the WAGA [War Affected Girls & Adults] foundation in the Bo Town region of Sierra Leone. “The Rope Foundation works to provide a platform that helps people express themselves and their problems within society,” says Nneka, who also serves as Arts Ambassador for the African Women Development Fund [AWDF] in Ghana.

She has taken part in various charitable events supporting young people in Nigeria and neighbouring countries. In 2020, Nneka launched a new Instagram page showcasing her artwork. She continues inspiring the world through these works too, having found painting and drawing another way to express “the essence of being on earth”, as she puts it.