Tiwa Savage Reveals How She Lost Endorsement Deal Over Refusal to Sleep with Company Owner

Popular Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage has highlighted the pressure on female artists to exchange sexual favors for career opportunities as a major challenge in the music industry.

Speaking at a panel organized by Entertainment Week Africa, Savage revealed that she has personally faced situations where influential male executives demanded personal meetings before booking her for shows. She also disclosed losing an endorsement deal after refusing to travel to Dubai with a company co-owner.

“These experiences made me realise that some executives value my body more than my talent,” she said.

Savage added, “I had been told that if I don’t go and see ‘this chairman’ personally, I would not be put on a show. I lost an endorsement because I refused to go to Dubai with a man who is one of the owners of the company. That was when I realised that they don’t value my talent but my body, which I was only flaunting as part of branding. It ended up hurting me because that is all they were seeing.”

Her remarks shed light on the ongoing struggles female entertainers face in asserting their professional worth in Nigeria’s music industry.