Celebrating Shola Ama from historic Brit Award win to Imagine legacy: ‘Having timeless songs is a double-edged sword’-Alicia Adejobi-Entertainment – Metro

When it comes to Black British music, Shola Ama is pretty much the cream of the crop. 

After being discovered at the age of 16, the aspiring singer went on to enjoy a whirlwind of success with songs such as You Might Need Somebody, Taboo and Imagine, all of which became so big they took on a life of their own. 

Shola has seen and done it all – won the top awards, signed to a major label and made a name for herself Stateside. 

She also did it in a different time, where being discovered on social media and marketing herself on apps such as TikTok was nowhere close to becoming a thing. 

Even more so back then, it took sheer talent, connecting with the right people and good ol’ fashioned luck. 

Shola, now 43, had that exact melting pot. 

As Black History Month draws to a close in the UK, Metro.co.uk recently spoke to the woman herself to reflect on her stellar career of songs that continue to keep the masses on their feet today. 

Shola Ama, the living legend

Hi Shola! It’s been nearly 30 years since your breakout, did you think songs like Need Somebody would be so timeless? 

It’s a bit of a double-edged sword for me because I’m so grateful to have timeless classic songs that I can still perform and people still love, but at the same time, a lot of those songs can feel bigger than me and people won’t let you get past them, so I’m trying to do something new and people will say we want to hear You Might Need Somebody or Imagine. 

It’s a blessing and a curse in a lot of ways, but obviously I’m super grateful to have created songs that have stood the test of time for sure. 

The remix of Imagine took the song to another height of popularity, what was it like watching the success of the track snowball? 

I think at the time I was really happy with the Imagine remix, simply because when I was recording my second album, I tried to speak to the label about having more of a British influence on my sound. 

The second album was really rushed and I wanted to work on my sound and there was a lot of exciting cool things happening here in the UK and I wanted my music to represent that. Although I was being flown to work with amazing American producers, I didn’t feel that there was enough of my culture here, as a young woman growing up in the UK, in my music.

So when the Imagine remix happened, I feel like it was representing the music me and my friends listened to. 

I was really proud of that one. 

Did you ever feel pressure to crack America? 

Yes and no. For me, it wasn’t so much the pressure to break out there because the focus was always here first. There wasn’t really any UK/R&B happening here, for me it was that they were trying to market me exactly like Americans and then compete and go head-to-head with the most massive American artists. 

That for me felt a little bit strange because I was so young. I had just turned 18 at the time and so for me having my album compete with some of my idols at the time I just felt was very strange. 

But I was just so genuinely happy to be doing what I loved, I just felt like what I told was the right thing because I was so young and when you’re a teenager and listen to advice from record labels, you just think they know what they’re doing. 

I do remember having conversations at the time about working with more UK producers and artists, but for them it was more about breaking me in the States. 

That was never discussed with me but judging by the producers, I’m sure that was probably top of the list. 

You were around at the same time as other incredible artists such as Gabrielle and Beverley Knight. Did you feel you were ever pitted against other Black female artists?

I never really felt a rivalry with anyone, Kele Le Roc came up just after me but we were friends. We accidentally became friends because we both were in LA at the same time and I went to the club, was in the toilet and heard an English accent and came out and she was like, “I know you”, and we kind of just fell into this friendship and used to hang out all the time. 

So even if in the industry or people on the outside tried to create some kind of rivalry, it was never felt, definitely not from my part anyway. 

I’ve just not been that kind of person either because of the way that I was raised. I was raised in a household full of strong Black women… it’s all women and we’ve just never been that competitive family, it’s always been a very strong, supportive – women that build you up and build up other women and that’s how I was raised. 

It’s not really in my DNA to compete with other women. 

In 1998 you won best British female at the Brits becoming one of a handful of Black to do so. What was that moment like for you at such a young age? 

I was really shocked to get it because I thought I might get something on that night, but I didn’t know if I would win that one because it just seemed like the huge one, and everything was still so new, so in some way I felt I hadn’t earned my stripes yet because it was in the first year of my success. 

I felt really proud. I remember in my speech I just thanked my mum and granny. I was supposed to do this big label/management and thank all the people who looked after me. 

I remember feeling really proud but also there’s so many positives to the way music industry has changed now. It’s so much richer than when I was around and when I look back at my time, if you didn’t have a major label deal and subscribe to certain formulas, there was just no chance of your music being heard. 

Shola Ama just casually celebrating her Brit Award win with Samuel L Jackson and Pam Grier in 1998 (Picture: Getty Images)

Shola won best R&B act at the 1997 MOBO Awards not long after her breakout (Picture: Getty Images)

The UK [music scene] is just so much richer than when I think back to 25 years ago, you had to whitewash your music a lot back then and it had to follow semi-pop guidelines and then you’d be more creative with remixes. 

The singles were always a little bit more dumbed down whereas now I don’t really feel like that’s the case at all. 

It’s evolved more, it’s different. Even though it’s been a long slow change, it has changed. 

Your music didn’t feel whitewashed back then, it still felt soulful… 

Thank you. I was thinking more of the music I was listening to at the time than the music I was making because in that period it was hip hop and R&B – in terms of the R&B that was coming out of America, it was a lot harder and edgier. 

On my second album, there was more of a leaning towards that sound because I felt like I definitely wanted to have a bit more of a hard [sound]. 

There’s also been more open discussion about colourism in the industry, how have you absorbed the experiences of dark-skinned women as a light-skinned woman? 

I’m aware of it anyway because my mum is a Black woman. I was raised in a household of strong Black women in a very Dominican household. I remember going to Dominica when I was four and they would say “white girl” because my hair was really light and my skin has always been quite fair. 

The Imagine singer is still performing to the masses today (Picture: @sholaama/Instagram)

Shola’s rise to fame was meteoric and she was still a teenager (Picture: Getty Images)

I do understand it and I understand it from the perspective of being the lighter-skinned one in the family, but also seeing the way that the world responds to each of us individually and the subtle differences. 

I understood it before I came into the industry. I’m not saying that someone who’s mixed race and raised by a white parent doesn’t understand it, but I’m just saying for me, it’s been something I’ve been aware of my whole life. 

Is there an album by another artist you wish you recorded for yourself? 

There’s so many! I love Mary J Blige’s My Life. For me that was the holy grail when I was a teenager. She was everything for me – her, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston growing up were like the three main singers that I absolutely worship. 

Amy [Winehouse’s] Back To Black album – I just think that will be one of the UK’s most timeless, most incredible pieces of work ever. There will be nothing ever like it again. It will stick with me. 

I also love Tiana Major9’s second album. 

‘I’m really proud of it but I’m also super happy and fulfilled in my life’ (Picture: Getty Images)

In your Instagram bio, you described yourself as a ‘living legend’ and it was a relief to know you recognise that in yourself… 

It’s funny because I had ‘living legend, apparently’ because everyone always says it when I do shows. Then I had so many people messaging me saying, ‘you need to take that “apparently” off of your bio right now’. 

I didn’t want to take it off but then one day I was like, fine, taking it off. I’m comfortable with it now. 

Do you feel like your contribution to Black British music is widely acknowledged and respected? 

I hope so. Sometimes no because I probably haven’t put out as much music as I would have liked to and should have over the last 25 years. Sometimes you’re only ever as good as your last record and time is a very interesting thing, it just goes. 

Even though I came out at the end of the 90s I’m always considered a 90s artist, I didn’t quite make the noughties. Sometimes I feel it and sometimes I don’t, I think that’s just the nature of the industry and luckily, how I feel about myself isn’t justified by my career. 

I’m really proud of it but I’m also super happy and fulfilled in my life anyway.

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