N'Abania signs with SA label

SOUL Candi Records is over the moon after signing Nigerian highlife music superstar Flavour N'Abania.

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HOT PROPERTY: Flavour N'Abania

Flavour is enjoying a wave of popularity across the African continent. His hit song, Nwa Baby, has been part of the Johannesburg party scene for quite some time now.

"This is definitely a big one for our label since Flavour is currently a hit on the continent, particularly in West Africa where his music genre, highlife, has long been popular," Sould Candi marketing head Lucky Mphilo said.

"With this signing we hope to make our foray into the West African music market, which has not yet been tapped into by a South African music label."

He said the fact that Nigerian films were watched widely in South Africa was an indication that there was a market for West African music locally.

"We will repackage his album and add new songs. We are quite confident we will crack it with this one," he said.

"Flavour's music has exploded in Africa and we are thrilled to be his home here in South Africa," Soul Candi label manager Allan Nicoll said.

Flavour signed with Soul Candi last week, paving the way for his album, Uplifted, to be sold in South Africa.

N'Abania's popular Nwa Baby was inspired by a classic highlife tune called Sawa Sawa Le by Rex Lawson , one of the all-time highlife greats from Nigeria.

The highlife genre originated in Ghana as a blend of brass band music with the more danceable and less established rhythms of rumba and calypso in the 1930s.

Highlife is popular in Nigeria, Ghana and neighbouring countries and is said to have paved the way for the better known Afro-beat style.

While his debut album, N'Abania, was successful in East Africa and Ghana, it was his sophomore release, Uplifted, that shot his popularity cross the borders into other African states, ultimately becoming one of the biggest selling albums of 2010.

Soul Candi is home to some of the most prolific stars of South African dance music, such as Micasa, Liquideep, DJ Fresh, Euphonik and Lulo Cafe.