Essosa may be fresh on the music scene, but she’s not naïve to the influence of TikTok and the bolster it can provide new artists. “Is there any other way to get people’s attention?”, she asks rather wisely. At 22 years old and having recently graduated university, she’s already gone viral with her smash single Waste My Time. Quick fun fact: the song has been used in over 71 thousand TikTok videos to date.
Her latest release, Tell Nobody, could have the same fate, with its upbeat tempo and a sound that is reminiscent of noughties R&B artists. Essosa explains, “The vibe and style of the song was very much inspired by Janet Jackson’s All for You and Kelis’ Flashback”, ticking all the boxes of those old enough to recall this iconic era of R&B, and those young enough to discover it for the first time.
In her first-ever cover interview, Essosa talks about how it felt to have a song go viral, uprooting from Canada to the UK, and her signature French curl braids.
What’s the most interesting thing you learned studying pharmacy at university?
Paracetamol, which is a painkiller, doesn’t help you heal quicker – your body heals on its own. Paracetamol ‘shuts up’ the chemical that is causing your brain to know that it’s in pain.
So when was the moment you decided music was the path for you?
It was when Michael Jackson passed in 2009. The impact he had on the world and how he broke racial barriers made me understand the power that an artist can have. I want to be able to touch people and break boundaries with my music to drive society forward.
Your music has been compared to that of 90s and noughties artists, but what makes your sound different?
By the time I was 14, I found my writing style. So regardless of what genre of music I’m making, I’m always going to compose a certain way; my harmonic arrangements and my melodies all create my sound. So if I ever made a house song, people would say, ‘that’s Essosa on a house song’. I’m not going to be limited to nineties and 2000s R&B for the rest of my career. It’s going to evolve and grow, but my sound will always be me.
How difficult was it to find the right team to cement your sound and get it right?
It was kinda difficult, because no one knew who I was. Nobody really wanted to work with me. So that was irritating. Being a creative in London – one that hasn’t got clout – it’s just a waste of time. Luckily, I have a good friend from my college, who happens to be a really good producer, and he worked on all my stuff. But before that, no one wanted to work with me at all. So that was a huge roadblock in my creative process.
What advice do you have to keep going?
Sometimes you can’t take things too personally. Some have reached out to try and work with me again, and that’s cool. The way I see it, before then it wasn’t our time. You’ve just got to be true to who you are.
Your single Waste My Time is about being ghosted by a boy. We’ve all been there! How did you deal with that?
What’s funny about that song is I only had one day to be upset. I was at work and I was in tears the whole time. My manager sent me home early! But, the day after, I actually met somebody and I started dating them, so when I wrote the song, it was after that next relationship fell apart, and I thought that maybe I was really affected by this because I never had time to process my emotions from the first guy. I was like, okay, let me write this song, get it out, and heal. I think it really did help. It touched other people as well, and I didn’t even realise it would.
How did you feel when the song went viral?
When I first started going viral, I was in university preparing for my exams. I didn’t really like social media, so my phone was blowing up and I was just turning it off. I was still revising and I had two essays due that week. I was going into the library every day and no one at university really cared, so it wasn’t affecting my everyday life. It was normal until the week after, when I was working at a pub and then people would recognise me. I got recognised on the tube and at tube stations, and it got to the point where I was wearing face masks to avoid being noticed.
Your signature style is blonde French curl braids. What is it about that look that you love?
In secondary school, we always had to have black hair. So, when I went to Sixth Form College, I started trying different hair colours, and I really loved the colour 27 and the way it brought out my undertones and facial features that other styles didn’t highlight. I tried other colours, but went back to 27 and just kept it. I’ve had it since I was 17.
What are your go-to hair and beauty products?
I’ve just bought a whole bunch of beauty products to upgrade my regime. I use Aussie’s conditioner, and it slaps. My friend put me onto the shampoo a while ago, and I actually liked it, so I got the conditioner and I fell in love. I’m usually loyal to Blue Magic’s leave-in conditioner, but I just switched up to the Mielle’s Babassu Oil & Mint Deep Conditioner, which features protein and amino acids because my hair is medium-to-low porosity, and I’d like it to be a bit stronger because I get quite a bit of breakage. What I’ve realised when it comes to type 4 hair particularly, is that it’s not one size fits all. What works for someone else’s type 4 hair may not work for yours. My natural hair has never been hard to deal with, but also it’s not the same as someone else’s natural hair. Theirs might be coarse, fine, soft, thick – and it might not be the same all over. I recently realised that the back of my hair is a questionable type 4, and that’s different to my sides and crown. It’s about finding hair care that works for you. I’m not following trends because what works for someone else’s hair could destroy my hair.
Have you bought anything from TikTok before?
Yes, I love doing a TikTok Shop. Recently, I bought the Kryolan Fixing Spray, which I used once and it was really good. I’ve also seen Made By Mitchell adverts on TikTok up to 30 times a day, so I bought the Think Pink Blursh Pressed Blusher in Think Pink and the Blursh Liquid Blusher in Cow Lick. I don’t regret buying them – plus they were quite cheap!
Do you believe in taking a digital detox?
I can’t really afford to do that anymore! But I pick and choose the spaces that I’m in online. For example, I just deleted X [formerly Twitter] because I felt like it was rotting my brain. When it comes to TikTok and YouTube, I love educational content, so my feeds are full of that.
Being British Nigerian, and raised in Toronto, Canada, how have these cultural backdrops influenced your lifestyle?
My identity has always been something that I feel I should have struggled with, but I didn’t. I’m lucky. Moving from Toronto to England made me have a deep understanding that a lot of the concepts we adhere to in society are not real, and we could just wake up one day and change it all. For example, to some people, natural hair is seen as unprofessional, but we could wake up one day and decide that it is professional. I had that understanding from a young age because my life was uprooted. When my family came back to Essex, which is not a very culturally diverse area, I found that I was one of the only British-Nigerian kids in my area, and I had a thick Canadian accent. No one could understand me, but I wanted to fit in, so I forced myself to change my accent to assimilate into Essex culture. But I knew I could never fully assimilate because nobody else looked like me. I noticed that other British-Nigerian kids kind of grew up resenting the fact that they didn’t look like anyone else and couldn’t assimilate, but I accepted it. I’ve always done my own thing. That, amongst everything, is the biggest impact that my background has had. The older you get, the more society tells you that you have to be X, Y or Z. Instead of giving value to these things that aren’t real, you should give value to yourself.
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CREDITS: Photography by Desmond Murray. Hair by Sabine Clough using Urban French Curl. Make-up by Natasha Wright. Styling by Gabrielle Rose-Edwards.
