Nigerian award-winning Afro-folk singer, songwriter and guitarist, Blessing Tangban is releases her first single titled “Teach Me.
The song was born during a ten-hour drive in her home country of Nigeria, from the capital, Abuja, to Cross River, near the border with Cameroon, at a point of her life when she was questioning her love for humanity.
“The song came to my heart in the form of a prayer. I would like to love people without reservations like Jesus did and I’d like him to teach me how.” – Blessing Tangban
Hearing her describe how she arrived to this chapter of her career, makes it clear that Christian music is not a phase: it’s an artistic direction rooted in core beliefs that have cemented themselves in the essence of Tangban as a human being as she described: “I have fallen in love with Jesus”.
Biography
Blessing Tangban, who lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, has a social media following of over 80,000, and collaborations with acclaimed African Artists like Johnny Drille and M.I. Abaga, Tangban’s music has clearly found an audience. Blending traditional African folklore with a contemporary and intimate sense of soul has struck a chord and garnered her a respectable following.
Tangban has had a successful career in her home country of Nigeria as a recording artist, with over one million streams across all platforms. Within the span of a decade since her debut in 2014, she recorded one album and two Eps, and expanded her success beyond her home country into other African nations like South Africa and Ghana.
However, her arrival in Canada coincided with an aesthetic shift into the world of Christian music. Although spirituality had always been present throughout Tangban’s body of work, this time around, as an artist, she leaned into her Christian faith like she had never done before. Getting through some turbulent times awakened and reinforced her faith. Teach Me, the single being released, very much embodies that theme of surrendering to God.
She is currently enrolled in the Music Business program at Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), fresh off getting her Doctorate in Public Policy from Walden University in the USA. in 2022. She enrolled at NSCC with the intention of acquiring the tools to navigate the music industry better, to “build a larger landscape and reach for my music, make it a life-long career”.
After this single release, Tangban’s goal is to release her third EP.
Stream the audio below:
