These days they're talking about the Swedish soul wave, but this lady was first. And for many, she still is. Titiyo, who came to Sweden (and the world's) attention in 1990 with songs like "Man in the Moon" and "My Body Says Yes". She sang with a voice that expressed all a young woman in love, or just in something more short-lived, could say.
Titiyo had the world at her feet, but she's never been afraid to take a step back, and she did, to have a baby amongst other things. She says that experience changed her voice, and in her 1993 return with the album "This is…" the tones blossomed into full maturity, without losing the zest of youth.
From the swingbeat of "The Way You Make Me Feel" to the beautiful cover of the Aretha Franklin hit "Never Let Me Go", the album was end-to-end hits and ehr airplay dynamite. Then came another, longer break, until "Extended" was released in late 1997. This time with Titiyo in complete charge of the production and even the songwriting. No compromises. She says the songs "all come from the desire to tell something, mostly about myself". Try the lovely "Before the day", for example, or the moving "Two Gether". Not pure soul or swingbeat, but a kind of smooth bluesy feel.
Titiyo comes, as they say, from a musical family. Her father, from Sierra Leone, is a percussionist, her mother a dance teacher (who plays piano solo on one track, "Make My Day"). Her brother Cherno is a rapper building his own career in Sweden, and her sister is Neneh Cherry, who needs no introduction. Swedish media joke about the possibility of a "Titiyo's family Christmas" tv show, but even she says a get-together on record might happen someday.
Until then, the family members are doing very nicely by themselves.
