Matala revisited: Winnie Nwagi’s underrated vocal masterpiece

People like to say Fire Dancer is Nwagi’s peak song, something I often disagree with. Matala is vintage Winne, and defined her for an industry that thought her music was just about her curves and her attitude.

The vocal gymnastics required to deliver Matala are insanely deceptive. The song involves subtlety, lows and highs, and its ad libs, which are critical to the song, require notable vocal power. Winnie carries the song with ease, like this is the sort of thing she does in her sleep.
 

 
I think Matala was when I started to take her a little more seriously. I still feel she is the most underrated female vocalist at Swangz Avenue and has barely scratched the surface of what she is capable of pulling off.

In an era when wannabe artistes believe all they have to do is wear an outfit showing off their bits and twerk, we need to return out attention to the ones that can sing at cosmic levels. Yes, she can twerk easily enough, but Nwagi is an artiste with superlative vocals.

Matala was a curious song, with an afro-pop groove, and a vocal arrangement that was designed to grow through the duration of the song. It is one of those tracks that does not insist upon itself. The song had a very understated production style that was something of an outlier at the time.

And it worked – Matala caught on like mad when it was dropped and is also one of Winnie Nwagi’s most easily recognizable songs. I think for me, what stands out most about Matala is you cannot imagine another local artiste pulling it off as effectively.