Adama

British-Nigerian singer-songwriter Adama has been dreaming her songs ever since she was a small child. She still vividly recalls her first dream, one in which she was a conductor, dressed in black tie and tails, exquisitely attuned to each part that each section of the orchestra was playing.

Born to a Cornish father and a Nigerian mother who met while her dad was on a job assignment in Nigeria, Adama spent her formative years living in the often violent and racist environment of a council estate (public housing to Americans) on the outskirts of London. A child of divorced parents with little money to go around, Adama’s musical dreams were the vibrant expression of a bright little girl seeking a way out.

Adama remembers annual trips to visit her grandparents in Cornwall as the ‘best time of my life’. Her grandfather had an old upright Bentley piano that Adama willed herself to master. There was no money for formal lessons but, seeing her dedication to learning the instrument, her grandparents had the piano delivered to her in London as a surprise present.

With the same passion she had for music, the teen-aged Adama threw herself into martial arts training. She quickly became the Kung Fu champion of the UK (specializing in weapons) and represented her country in an international championship competition in Hong Kong. Adama entered college to study art and fashion design and easily slid into a stint as a model, gracing the covers of many of Britain’s fashion magazines.

But Adama found herself drawn more and more to the world of music. She felt an unquenchable thirst to compose so she bought a guitar on time and learned a few chords. She dove into London’s music scene with the enthusiasm of a devoted fan, ingratiating herself with an inner circle comprised of the city’s hottest musicians. Adama continued to dream fully arranged and orchestrated pop songs that she struggled to set down, given her self-taught musical education. Finally, her friend Madonna/Björk-producer Guy Sigsworth showed her how to program each part on a Yamaha QY70, the machine that Björk was using at the time. This proved to be the much sought-after key to bringing the music of the indefatigable young artist’s dreams to life.

She quit college and modeling and spent three years figuring out her music. The full-blown arrangements and story lines that Adama had been dreaming her whole life took shape as eloquent pop songs with unforgettable melodies, sophisticated chord structures and inspiring lyrics. The A&R folks began to take notice. After a major label flurry, Adama settled down with Dreamworks. Then Dreamworks folded.

The agony of the limbo Adama found herself in as the fate of her contract was resolved was one of the blackest periods in her life. As might be imagined, the dreams dried up. A mutual friend, concerned about Adama’s state of mind, asked the singer Jennifer Warnes (“Up Where We Belong”, “I Had The Time Of My Life/Dirty Dancing Theme”) to give her a call.

“I don’t know who you are. I don’t know if you’re pretty or you’re not. I don’t know if you can sing or you can’t. But one thing I will tell you – don’t wait for a record company to make things happen for you. You’ve got to do it yourself. Put up your website, record your own records, connect with your fans,” was the unemotional advice that Warnes had for Adama. This was the figurative – and redemptive -- slap in the face that set Adama down the path of creating her debut album Delicate Dragon.

Producer/A&R Gili Wiseburgh was just finishing up his work with Sigsworth and Imogen Heap on the Frou Frou album and presented Adama with a bold proposal – to sign to the label 4Dpeople Records and record in Israel where Wiseburgh had built a studio near the Dead Sea. Adama spent the next year and a half recording her album there. Together they painted her songs into a sound that blended electronic music with strong live musical performances. In the course of the recording, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra was recruited to perform on a number of tracks. A huge fan of Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley, Adama contacted Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees and Mad Season (another group Staley played with) for permission to use a bass line from the opening track from the Mad Season album. Not only did Martin oblige; he flew all the way to Israel to play on the track himself. Adama returned the favor by subsequently co-writing and performing with Martin and Peter Buck (R.E.M.) on their forthcoming Tuatara project release.

In summer 2007 Adama landed in New York to set up her American debut. With over 80,000 friends and her myspace page is racking up hits in excess of 1,000,000, her active community is clamoring for live appearances. She performs with a multi-national band that includes a Brazilian guitarist, a drummer from Iceland, an African American New Yorker on keyboards and a bassist who hails from Nashville, with plans to preview the music from Delicate Dragon in showcasing gigs around the US throughout the fall. Well worth the wait, Delicate Dragon hits record stores in February 2008.