The first single from multiple award-winning poet Chijioke Amu-Nnadi’s new album, everything beautiful will be released on Easter Sunday, 17th April.
The song, titled amazing, was created from the author’s poem of the same title in his fourth book, a river’s journey (published in 2016) and is performed with Pamela Scott.
Amu-Nnadi’s awards included the prestigious Glenna Luschei African Poetry Book Prize in 2014, and his works have been adopted by several universities as literature materials.
His poem poetry was his first published work, appearing in the 1987 anthology of new Nigerian poetry, Voices from the Fringe. It was edited by Harry Garuba for Malthouse Press, the publishers.
Last year, Amu-Nnadi launched his book, the love canticles and introduced Nigerians to his forthcoming album.
He disclosed that the album was ready and a new single would be released every month until the full album’s unveiling in October this year.
Other collaborators on the album include August Chuks, Feelix, Amutolani, Tarri Guitarri and Buchi of Today FM.
Scott, who is a soft rock, neo-soul singer, songwriter, acoustic guitarist and producer, has released four singles and an EP, titled Who I Am, which gained recognition in the Nigerian music industry. Her voice is described “a soul on its own, capturing all who listens to her.”
She is known for her message of God’s love and hope and declared, ‘I sing my truth and my truth sets me free’.
The song, which begins with the words, “We belong to a great and immeasurable universe, which we cannot fathom,” is a deeply philosophical piece that reflects the brilliance of Amu-Nnadi’s poetry and the beauty of Scott’s singing and craft.
According to Amu-Nnadi, ‘It’s amazing how many planets we find but inhabit one earth, how many fruits there are but only a few we eat. It’s amazing how many stars in our universe, but how few we know, how much knowledge there is and how so small our minds.
‘We think ourselves masters of the universe, the true emperors, but sadly, how so little we know, how so little man is. No matter how greedy, no man can own the world. No matter how much water, our earth cannot drown in it’.
Winner of the inaugural 2002 Association of Nigerian Authors’ Gabriel Okara Prize for poetry, Amu-Nnadi writes poetry without punctuation and capital letters and publishes without any personal data, photograph and name.
His poetry is well received across Africa and beyond, some of which were translated into Italian, Spanish and Russian.
