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Listen to These Beautiful Interpretations of Nina Simone

We premiere Ghanaian-American singer ABIAH's upcoming album, ABIAH sings NINA.

ABIAH is an singer-songwriter who's earned leading roles across the New York City Opera and Carnegie Hall for his uniquely captivating voice. The Ghanaian-American artist is now following up 2016's Bottles, which earned him a Billboard Top 100 spot, which his new album, ABIAH sings NINA.

Throughout the new record, which is due May 6, ABIAH presents nine wholly new interpretations of Nina Simone's classic songs. More than just covers, the singer's versions play like new arrivals at the core of Nina's message, giving her compositions new life.


The album follows ABIAH as he covers some of his favorite Nina Simone songs like "Don't Smoke in Bed," "See-line Woman" and "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair."

It also includes a Nina-inspired original song, "I'm Just Like You," which was written after the death of Trayvon Martin. Our favorite might be ABIAH's upbeat cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," which builds on stabbing piano chords and a stuttering beat.

"ABIAH sings NINA is my love letter to Nina Simone," the singer tells OkayAfrica. "What you will hear is the reflection of her artistry through me. She is one of my biggest inspirations and much like Nina, my artistry is an anomaly. I hope new listeners and continued fans will go on this journey with me as reimagined these Masterpieces by the High Priestess of Soul. After 13 years of contemplating this recording, I braved the courage to tribute Nina. With the support of my fans via GoFundMe, we raised majority of the funds to bring this vision to fruition. I present to you... ABIAH sings NINA."

Listen to ABIAH sings NINA in its entirety below and pre-order the album here. CD and vinyl copies will be available here.

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Rep Your Culture With OkayAfrica Shop's New Spring Collection

Check out our latest collection of graphic shirts, including our new "West Indian Uni" tee.

Happy Spring, everyone!

To mark the oncoming warmer months, our Okayshop has debuted its new Spring collection, and it includes several new designs to help you stylishly represent for the continent.

The collection of graphic tees includes our new "Africa to the World" shirt as well as our colorful "Africa Prism" graphic tee. All designed to help you were your culture fashionably and proudly.

For our West Indian family, we've got you covered as well. Check out our new "West Indian Uni" tee. It's one of our favorites, and we think you'll enjoy it too.

For the streetwear enthusiasts, we've stocked the site with the limited-edition Fela x Carhartt WIP collection, just in case you weren't able to cop some pieces from the vibrant line sooner.

All designs are available now so head to our newly re-designed online store to get yours before they're gone!

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Nigerian hitmaker, DJ Tunez is back with his latest musical offering, "Causing Trouble."

It's the artist's first single since last year's "Turn Up," his collaboration with Wizkid and Reekado Banks. "Causing Trouble" features the budding Nigerian artist Oxlade, who provides the song's melodic lyrics over breezy production by Spax. "Your body hotter than a sauna," he sings in true afropop form at the start of the track.

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South African rapper Sipho The Gift recently performed two songs from his new album iNDiGO.

The performance took place at Red Bull Studios in Cape Town, "as part of a visual translation of the iNDiGO album," says the rapper. He worked with Euden "Eudy" Oliphant on keys, Nathan Solomon on drums and Duncan Johnson on bass.

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