Flavour discovered Semah in Liberia in March 2017 and the highlife superstar has been allowing God use him to change the boy’s life ever since. Semah was born blind and into poverty. For years, he has been in the care of Monrovia-based NGO, Christian Association of the Blind (CAB). Life hasn’t been kind to him but young Semah hasn’t allowed that kill his spirit. In spite of his circumstances, Semah’s dream is to become a singer. Incredibly, even though he grew up over 2,000 km away from Lagos, he built a love for two of the greatest musicians the continent has ever seen. Semah idolized
Fl a v o u r a n d MasterKraft,
the producer responsible for
several of the singer’s hits,
and was dying to meet them
someday. Late in 2016, veteran
Liberian singer, Q u e e n J u l i
Endee, traveled to Lagos to
collaborate with the Nigerian
duo on her new s i n g l e
“Atul ayl ay” ; they established
a good working r e l a t ionship.
Queen Endee heads a cultural
g r o u p b a c k home called the
L i b e r i a n Crusaders for
Peace (LCP), t h e y t r a v e l
a r o u n d t h e w o r l d
p r o m o t i n g p e a c e a n d
L i b e r i a n c u l t u r e . I n
addition to her music, Queen
E n d e e i s a humanitarian
and cultural ambassador for her home country.
She has been at the forefront of numerous humanitarian initiatives since the end of the first Liberian Civil War. One of her most recent is working with the Christian Association of the Blind (CAB). Queen Endee met Semah during a peace crusade at CAB; the 11 year old performed one of her songs, “No Shaking”, and left her in awe. During that meeting, Semah told Queen Endee of a life-long desire to meet her co-collaborators, Flavour and MasterKraft, and to also make music with them. While she made no promises, Queen Endee did pray that Semah’s dream would one day come true.
Flavour and MasterKraft visited
Monrovia shortly afterwards for a
concert and news of Semah’s adoration
got back to the 2Nite camp. MasterKraft
was the first to visit Semah, and sent
Flavour several videos of the boy
singing his music. Flavour was touched.
Before jetting out of Monrovia, he met
up with Semah. The first meeting
happened on March 21st, 2017, at an
event to honour the highlife icon.
Flavour was conferred with the title of
Chief Zanzan of Liberia, in recognition
of his ‘immense contribution’ to Africa
through music. Semah was in
attendance. After being introduced by
Queen Endee, the visually-impaired,
aspiring singer held the microphone and
sang Flavour’s 2016 ode to mothers,
“MAMA”. The crowd gathered around
to capture the moment. Towards the
end, the muscular figure of Flavour
unexpectedly crept up behind Semah
and cuddled him gently. It was a
powerful moment; the two would be
inseparable from then on. Semah grabbed a hold of Flavour’s dreads, his face and his gold chain, anything he could find, perhaps to confirm that it was truly the Nigerian superstar. Flavour would later claim: “I made a
new friend Semah G. Weifur.
He’s blind and sang my songs better than me.” He might have oversold the performance slightly, nonetheless Flavour saw potential in Semah. Fast-forward to June, 2017, when the highlife superstar released his fifth studio album, Ijele – The Traveler. It included “Most High”, a gospel duet featuring Semah, as the last track. “Most High” was released as an official single off the album, complete with
a music video shot by Clarence Peters. It brought more and more people into the world of Flavour N’Abania and Semah G. Weifur, to learn about their amazing story One song then became seven, and on March 12th, 2018, Flavour and Semah released a joint gospel EP titled Divine (all songs produced by MasterKraft).
For an artist who’s made a career off of lewdness and sexual proclivity, releasing a gospel album in itself is a minor miracle. So, while Flavour might be changing Semah’s life, it’s also fair to say that Semah is having an effect on Flavour’s life as well. Semah is also performed alongside his idol at the inaugural “Flavour of Africa” music concert that took place in Enugu, What a difference a year can make. However, Semah still has ways to go before he’d be considered a precocious talent; it’s far too early to declare him a Cobhams Asuquo in-themaking or anything. But for a child who was dealt a difficult set of cards to deal from the day he was born, surely things can only get better from here.