Tawiah has a well earned reputation as a trailblazer as one of the UK’s finest alt-soul singer-songwriters. While her previous release Starts Again is an exploration of Tawiah’s identity as a queer woman of colour, raised in a pentecostal family, her concept album Ertha released at the end of 2022, is a concept album, created collaboratively with writer and partner Al Moore. The album depicts the character Ertha’s life from birth to death, with Tawiah responding musically to compose to Al’s poetry.
They will be creating an immersive live reproduction of Ertha along with singers from LGBT choir Rainbow Voices at G5A Warehouse in Mumbai. The 'In Residence' show in association with BNP Paribas will run for three days – April 28 to 30 – at the cultural centre. This performance puts a spotlight on LGBTQIA+ voices and their lived experience.
Says Al who has written the songs on Ertha, “Recently, a child asked me if I'd always been gay. And I wondered what to say because when I was younger, I wasn't allowed to connect with that part of my being. Growing up, for me, it wasn't okay to be gay, and hence those thoughts were rejected or ignored. For Tawiah, her whole life, it has not been accepted that she's gay. So I think her music has been a really big part of her healing journey. She has channeled a lot of her pain and emotion in her music.” Tawiah concurs, “All of my feelings and life experiences are expressed in my music, as a default of being who I am. Everything is expressed in my sound. The music that I create is an extension of me. People who are living a similar life will resonate with my music and connect with it. They may not necessarily have the same experiences, but I hope my music gives them common ground to connect.”
Watching Tawiah perform with the choir at the open rehearsal, it is evident that she has a strong background in gospel music and soul. The way she leads the choir is groovy and enchanting. She grew up listening to people like American gospel singer CeCe Winans. “Then my uncle put me onto everything else, all secular music, and I gravitated towards Erykah Badu, Mary J Blige, the Fugees, Lauryn Hill. So gospel first, then soul, then I also like jazz,” she says.
Through songs such as Birth, Child, Youth, Elder, Death, Ertha tells the story of the human condition. Al has the whole concept down. Apart from writing the songs, she has created the album cover and the artwork for the show. “Ertha is a personification of a philosophy of mine but it's pretty universal. I started to think about the journey of our species at the micro and macro levels. During the Covid-19 lockdown, I was feeling depressed at how hopeless everything can feel and how broken we felt as a species. My aunt talked about how, at any time, you're exactly where you need to be. She has the notion that if you're in a situation, there's something to learn there. I believe that we are born as limitless beings in the essence of love, but through the course of the narratives, society and the stories we are told, we move away from the essence of who we truly are. This mirrors in our species as well.”
Traversing the realms of theatre and concert, the performance of Ertha not only explores race, gender identity and sexual orientation, but also what it means to be human.
