Tiwa Savage: The Writer Who Became Queen of Afrobeats

In the article that follows, I look at how Tiwa Savage built a songwriting and performing career defined by a string of firsts, and how she has handled a public divorce and a privacy violation by disclosing each on her own terms. If living through the end of a relationship in the public eye, or in private, is something you are navigating yourself, I have designed a breakup test that helps place where you stand in the process of moving on. I have also written a book on the subject, Surviving the Breakup: From Heartbreak to Renewal, if you would like to go further.

Before Tiwa Savage was a headline act, she was the person writing hits for other artists. That distinction matters, because it explains something about how she has approached fame ever since: as a career to be built deliberately, not a story to let other people write for her — including the title "Queen of Afrobeats," which she has publicly turned down more than once. Her career now spans nearly two decades, from a music education in Boston to record deals with three of the industry's most recognizable labels, and it has run alongside a personal life that has, at points, played out just as publicly.

A Songwriter First, a Star Second

Tiwatope Savage-Balogun trained at Berklee College of Music, graduating in 2007, and competed on the UK's X Factor in 2006 before building a career behind the scenes. A publishing deal with Sony/ATV in 2009 led to writing credits for Fantasia Barrino, including a Grammy-nominated collaboration on "Collard Greens & Cornbread," and work with Monica. By the time she signed with Mavin Records in 2012 and released her own debut album, Once Upon a Time, the following year, she already understood the music industry from a position most performers never see. As I explore in my Practical CBT Guide, that kind of hands-on, earned competence tends to produce a steadier form of confidence than one built on early acclaim alone.

A Career Built on a String of Firsts

That foundation shows in the record she has built since. R.E.D (2015) became the most-streamed album on MTN Music within 24 hours of release. In November 2018, she became the first woman to win the MTV Europe Music Award for Best African Act. She signed a seven-year deal with Universal Music Group in 2019, having already become the first Nigerian artist signed to Roc Nation in 2016. Her 2020 album Celia made TIME's list of the best albums of the year, and she featured on Beyoncé's The Lion King: The Gift the year before. In May 2023, she performed at the coronation of King Charles III. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Kent, awarded in 2022, and was named among the BBC's 100 inspiring women in 2017.

Nigerian media has long reached for a single title to sum up that record — "Queen of Afrobeats" — but Tiwa Savage has repeatedly declined it in interviews, arguing publicly that other artists in the genre deserve recognition on their own terms rather than a hierarchy built around one name. It is a small detail, but a consistent one: someone who spent years writing hits for other performers before building her own catalogue has been just as deliberate about how her own story gets summarized.

Living Through a Difficult Marriage in Public

Tiwa Savage married Tunji "Tee Billz" Balogun in a traditional ceremony in November 2013, followed by a white wedding in Dubai the following April. The couple had a son in 2015. By April 2016, the marriage had unraveled publicly: Tee Billz accused her of infidelity, while she said he had struggled with financial irresponsibility, substance abuse, and periods of abandoning the relationship. Both accounts were his and hers, not independently confirmed facts, and the divorce was finalized in 2018.

Choosing to Tell Her Own Story

In October 2021, Tiwa Savage made a decision that shaped how the rest of this chapter is understood: rather than let a leaked intimate video circulate as blackmail material, she went public about the situation herself, refusing to pay the people demanding money to suppress it. She later referenced the episode in her 2022 single "Loaded." What is documented here is the sequence of events and her own account of it — not an interpretation of what it says about her more broadly. This point is central to my book Our Archaic Wounds, where I look at how naming a violation on your own terms, rather than letting it be defined by whoever exposed it, is itself part of keeping an intact sense of identity.

Career, Not Crisis, as the Throughline

Even during the years that produced the most difficult personal headlines, Tiwa Savage's professional output did not slow down. She lost her father in July 2021, the same year as the video scandal, and went on to launch the "We Are Tired" foundation the year before, supporting legal aid for survivors of sexual assault in Nigeria. In March 2026, she launched the Tiwa Savage Music Foundation, focused on music education for young people. Her most recent album, This One Is Personal (August 2025), explores love, heartbreak, and healing directly — themes she has lived through publicly, then chosen to write about on her own schedule rather than have written about her.

What stands out across more than a decade of Tiwa Savage's public life is not the absence of hardship — divorce, a privacy violation, grief — but a consistent pattern in how she has responded to it: naming what happened, on her own terms, and then continuing the work. That is not the same as being unaffected by difficulty. It is a specific, observable way of moving through it, one that has as much to teach about resilience as any of her chart records.

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FAQ

Is Tiwa Savage married?

No. Tiwa Savage was married to Tunji "Tee Billz" Balogun from 2013 to 2018, when their divorce was finalized. No current partner has been publicly confirmed.

Why is Tiwa Savage called the "Queen of Afrobeats"?

The nickname has circulated in Nigerian media for years, but Tiwa Savage has publicly declined it, saying other artists deserve equal recognition rather than a single title.

What awards has Tiwa Savage won?

Tiwa Savage was the first woman to win the MTV Europe Music Award for Best African Act, in November 2018. She also holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Kent (2022) and was named among the BBC's 100 inspiring women in 2017.

Did Tiwa Savage write songs for other artists before her own career?

Yes. After signing a publishing deal with Sony/ATV in 2009, she wrote for artists including Fantasia Barrino — earning a Grammy nomination for the collaboration "Collard Greens & Cornbread" — and Monica, before releasing her own debut album in 2013.