Twenty years since the Nigerian twin band, P-Square, released its first studio album, the beautiful thing about P-Square’s songs is how they take you back to where you were when you first heard them. They bring back memories of what you were doing and the sort of life you had, and they awaken all the beauties of moments you would otherwise have forgotten, Ernest Nweke writes.
Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, The Age of Afrobeats. Buy the issue here.
When P-Square, the singing and dancing duo made up of identical twin brothers, Peter and Paul Okoye, broke into the Nigerian music scene in 2003, no one saw their talent coming. Their music spread like wildfire. You heard their songs wherever you turned. Around street corners, on the lips of teenagers and children; in homes, shops, clubs, and even dining halls that turned into dancing halls on social nights in boarding secondary schools in different parts of the country, everywhere reverberated with their songs. Nigerians of different ages lost themselves to the music, singing along to ‘Bizzy Body’, ‘Ifunanya’, or ‘Do Me’. As this happened, they also found themselves dancing because to keep up with P-Square was to forget and find oneself in the music and the dance that were the duo’s talent. P-Square was a sensational experience that lasted us decades.
The December I first heard P-Square, I was in Aguata, Anambra State, for the Christmas holidays. It was 2006, and the road leading to Mbara Oye, the village market, and St Charles Catholic parish Achina, where we attended vigil masses on Christmas and New Year’s Eve, was still untarred. We spent most of the day holed up inside the house, away from the cloud of dust that rose into the air and over the fence when cars sped past. Over and over again, with doors and windows closed to keep out the dust and harmattan cold and heavy curtains drawn to give the high-walled sitting room a cozy feel, we watched Maid in Manhattan or played the P-Square’s Get Squared album on repeat...
This essay features in our print issue, ‘The Age of Afrobeats’ and is only available online to paying subscribers. To continue reading register for a free trial and get unlimited access to The Republic for a week!
Already a subscriber? Log in.