Justina Lee Brown is a singer/songwriter/composer from Nigeria. She tours the world, living her life and telling her story through her music, which combines Funky Soul Blues with Afrobeat roots.
Justina Lee Brown presents her song, “Billiki,” a song that tells a tragic story and contains melodies weaved around painful circumstances something that is easy to understand upon first listen, whether or not you understand what Justina Lee Brown sings about in her native language, Yoruba. Striking guitar chords and introspective harmonizing from Brown set off the song, laying an intense atmosphere over which she tells the heartbreaking story of Billiki.
Hinged on recurring cases of child abuse, sexual abuse and harassment in Nigeria and Africa in general, “Billiki” tells about the eponymous character, a young girl who goes missing after her mother sends her to the stream to fetch some water for the house; shedding light on the deep levels of insecurity young children in Nigeria, especially girls, face even in their community.
Sadly, while “Billiki” is a fictitious story, it’s also an extension of JLB’s own troubled past, capturing a time when she grew up in one of the worst slums of Lagos, Ajegunle City, with her teenage mother who was estranged from her family due to her choice of keeping Brown and raising her. A childhood during which she was exposed to so much danger, like sexual harassment and abuse even at the very young age of 7.
Brown makes it known that the song is an extended metaphor on how little children not only lose their innocence but also the chance for a solid foundation for the future due to their difficult upbringing. She also mentions that eventually during adulthood, it is near impossible for them to find themselves and a defining path without the help of the Holy Spirit.
Quelle: Eshed Music & Art
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