#SelahMusic: Nikki Laoye & Cwesi Oteng | Jésù [@NikkiLaoye]

April 19, 2019

From Nigeria & Ghana with Love, Out today is the highly anticipated soulful collaboration, “Jésù by award winning Nigerian gospel artist, Nikki Laoye and Ghanaian gospel artist, Cwesi Oteng.

An African Ode to Jesus, the song is the Yoruba adaptation of the renowned title track, “Yesu” off Cwesi’s EP, which is a celebration of the love, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on a musical journey from Ghana through Nigeria to Zambia, and back to Ghana.

Translated by Nikki Laoye and her mum, the singer shares her experience working on the song with Cwesi “’Jesu’ is more than a song to me, it’s my heart and my life in words to the one true lover of my soul Jesus and I know that it would definitely bless everyone who hears it.

“When Cwesi reached out to me 3 years ago about creating a Yoruba version of his song, I totally fell in love with the idea of recording a song from start to finish in my local dialect and as expected, it was an indescribable, explosive expression of raw emotion in the studio booth and beyond. Singing to God in Yoruba gets me super emotional every-time as my soul obviously connects in deep ways that I can’t even comprehend.

“It was also fun working with my mum as she helped translate and also sat with me in the studio, to ensure that I pronounced the words and intonations correctly as this would be my very first 100% concentrated Yoruba song.”

Also speaking about the song, Cwesi Oteng shares ‘’The song ‘Jésù’ from the collaboration with Nikki Laoye is very special to me. It took us three years to get the song completed after Nikki sent the vocals. There was a lot that happened between those three years that could have made us lose the files, but God wanted this time to actualize the song and the EP.
Nikki is an anointed singer with a heavenly voice and so it is an honor for me to work with her on the song. I believe this song is anointed and has been prepared to touch many lives across Africa and beyond,’’

“Jésù” is also one of the singles on Cwesi’s “Yesu EP (An African Ode to Jesus)”, a specially curated EP for the Easter festive season. A 7-track EP centered on the essence of the redemptive work of Jesus and the gift of salvation made available to humanity to have a renewed relationship with God.

With his original version, “Yesu” delivered in his native Asante Twi dialect, Cwesi collaborates with award-winning vocalist friends in Nikki Laoye (Nigeria) and Penjani Ng’uni (Zambia) for the Yoruba (Jésù) and Pemba (Yesu) adaptations of the title track respectively. Other songs on the EP are root-reggae inspired ‘Love’, the reflective ‘My Defence (Jesus Chant), and an instrumental and live version of the title track, ‘Yesu’, featuring Joycelyn Armah and Flo’Riva Inc

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