Nneka, back in NYC to perform at the Mercury Lounge

Nigerian soul singer Nneka is currently on a North American tour in support of her latest albumtitled My Fairy Tales. She recently made a stop in New York City to perform at the Mercury Lounge. TiA was in attendance to give you the lowdown on the performance.

Nneka at the Mercury Lounge.

A Welcome Return
Nneka’s return to New York City was a welcome one as it had been over two years since she last performed in the city. The last time she was there, she performed at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem, representing Nigeria as part of the inaugural Africa Now! lineup, with Blitz the Ambassador representing Ghana, Lokua Kanza representing the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Freshlyground representing South Africa. TiA covered that event as well.
An Intimate Performance
Unlike the grander production, bigger lights and larger stage of the Apollo Theater, the Mercury Lounge is a small, intimate space. It’s essentially a dive bar with a small section for live performances. This is a tiny venue. If you’re all the way at the front of the stage, you can literally reach out and touch the artist. There are pros and cons of small venues, but let’s focus on the positives. The positives of a small venue are that you will get an intimate show, and that you will be up close and personal. You’ll feel like the artist is singing to you. Depending on your viewpoint, this might be worth being packed in like sardines, which was certainly the case because the tiny house was packed to see Nneka. I certainly didn’t mind. I’d see Nneka play in the middle of the Sahara Desert in a sandstorm if I had to.

The crowd was antsy and eager to see Nneka take the stage. It was a dreary and rainy summer evening, so people wanted to get in from the rain. It was mostly an after work crowd, so apart from the rainy weather, this was largely a crowd who wanted to forget about work and let the soothing voice of Nneka take them away.
Nigerian Pidgin Banter
Nneka took to the stage unassumingly, and readied her unique, hollowed-out guitar. She’s a very chatty performer. There is a lot of banter between songs and you feel like you’re talking with an old friend. Nneka peppers her banter with Nigerian pidgin and, without a shadow of a doubt, the white people in attendance didn’t fully comprehend everything she said.

She performed songs from her new record like My Love, My Love and Book of Job, as well as classics like Do You Love Me Now. As noted, there was a lot of banter and interaction from Nneka with the crowd and it wasn’t all lighthearted. She spoke about serious issues, from the terrorism of Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria, to the white supremacist, racist attacks that claimed the lives of nine Black people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, to women’s rights and global injustice.

There is a lot of feeling when Nneka performs. You get the sense that she has deep reservoirs of empathy. You too can’t help but feel when you listen to her. She had everyone in the palm of her hands for the evening. Her performance was magnificent, but I didn’t expect anything else.
All photos by Atane Ofiaja.