this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour as newsday continues, straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, sarah montague. my guest today is a hugely successful afrobeat star. the nigerian omah lay is just 25, but he's broken into western markets, partly because of a collaboration with the canadian singerjustin bieber. he's here in london on a world tour now. afrobeats emerged from

afrobeat, political music, a way to address social change that was pioneered by the legendary fela kuti. the latest incarnation of afrobeats is less politically charged. omah lay sings about love, heartbreak and longing. with western megastars like ed sheeran and madonna tapping into this musical style, what does it mean for the way that afrobeats will evolve? omah lay, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. fela kuti described his afrobeat music as, "a fusion "and combination of highlife, jazz, funk, psych rock, salsa, "black power, anti—colonial and anti—corruption politics." how would you

describe your music? i think it's probably the same thing, but i don't know if i'm going to say politics, anti—corruption, i don't know, but every other thing is the same. it's just that i do it differently now because, you know, music is different now. and, yeah, highlife is still the same, afro is still the same, the elements that makes afrobeat is still the same, it's just that, you know, it's a new world and ijust do it how we do it now in this, our modern age. so, yeah, it's still afrobeat, and it'sjust different people doing it. but afrobeat, originally, it was political. you have been public on political issues... yeah. ..but you don't use your music? i'm not sure i use my music for political issues. it's not like i don't, it's just that i don't think i have...yet. but, yeah, if it comes to that, when i have to use my music

for political issues, then i will. but so far i haven't had enough... i haven't done it so far. i wondered if in part it was deliberate, because the type of things that you sing about — love, longing, they are universal, so i wondered if that helps it to reach a wider global audience than if you were singing about national politics. i'm not so much of a politic person... sarah laughs. ..and my music is me. i make my music for how i am. i am so much of the person you're seeing right now, and love, you know... ..yeah, happiness, things that, you know, dance, have fun and feel good and stuff. so, yeah... # everything i do, i under # i no fit under, under, under

# me i no fit under, under, under # i not fit understand # that thing wey you do me # i under, under # i no fit under, under, under...# maybe when i get to the point where i begin to enjoy politics and i begin to understand politics very much, then maybe i'll start using my music too, for, you know... ..but for now, i think all i do right now is talk about the things that youths, the things that i understand, which is love, heartbreak, pains, as a youth, the things we go through as youths, and that's what i use my music for cos that's where i am right now. afrobeats, and you, have been hugely successful. i mean, burna boy won best global music album award at the grammys last year. a couple of years ago, you were chosen by apple, apple music, as their first africa rising star. and you've done this collaboration with justin collaboration with justin bieber, which i guess

introduced you to a much wider audience. it was on your track attention. can you tell us how it happened? oh, yeah. because you did a remix of one of his songs. yeah, yeah, yeah. i did a remix for peaches... yeah. ..peaches remix. i was supposed to be on his album, thejustice album, but a lot of things happened, i couldn't make it. yeah, but we're still talking, and i had to do the peaches remix. and then, as time goes on, we kept sending songs and, you know, exchanging, "what's this? what's that?" — until we got attention. yeah, that was it. but it was when you worked withjustin bieber, that's what meant it broke into the uk's billboard chart. i wonder how you feel about the fact that you released a track, it does brilliantly in africa, but it's only when you rework a song with a white canadian megastar likejustin bieber that it gets to break into,

for example, the uk billboard charts as that one did. the way i'll connect with my people, with my music, no matter how much of an influence someone else from somewhere else had, i'm not sure you can be able to connect with those people as much as i will connect with them. i feel it's a normal thing everywhere in the world. and, yeah, of course, there are songs that... ..these are two different audiences, these are two different people, yet sometimes this needs this to make it work. that's what i'm wondering, really. do you need the white artist to break into...? i wouldn't say i need, i wouldn't say you need. yeah, i wouldn't say you need. like i said earlier, music is a universal language. this is just two artists, this isjust us making music and trying to reach as much people as we can. # lately, i've been losin'

my mind _ # certain things i can't find # in the middle of the night # i'm still trying to decide # should i drink up? smoke up? # need some freedom # freedom, ah, in my life... # there's an interesting moment where afrobeats is reaching around the world and there are people who are concerned about some things that are happening. the nigerian film—maker and producer ayo shonaiya said in the netflix documentary afrobeats, "i say this "without fear, afrobeats is our music. "it belongs to us africans. "we invented that genre, we have to protect it as this genre is now going global." and he said, "it's our gift "to the world, but we have "to retain the core of it, the backbone, the dna." is he right? he's right. he's right, but at the same time, ifeel like there's really nothing to...

i don't feel like anybody�*s taking anything from anybody. it's music, at the end of the day, it's just music. anybody can make any music they want to. when billboard magazine, they focused on afrobeats because it is doing so well. mm—hm. but when they talked about it, "the sounds and influence have "grown in the us market through artists such as beyonce and drake." there was a lot of unease among some people who thought, why are you crediting western singers when actually, it's african singers? yeah, it's african music, but you can't deny the fact that these people, like i said, this is two different audiences, yeah? you can't deny the fact that drake, beyonce, anybody else who did african music in their territory, made it some sort of popular there. you can't deny the fact that african music wasn't this global ten years ago.

it wasn't. and like i said, it is not necessary that it needs this person to make it go there, but it's just easier when these people put hands together. and you can't change the fact that the influence of drake, beyonce, and everybody in the western world who have been talking afrobeat, you can't deny the fact that they made people more interested. people all over the world discovered afrobeat more. you can't deny that fact. 0k, any reason to turn down a collaboration, then? if me, personally, as an artist, my collaborations are not because i want this and i want that, like, i usually make my music for music's sake. i usually make music because it's music. it does what it has to do. i cannot decide how you will enjoy the music, i can't decide it for you. and my collaborations are not

because i want this territory and i want that territory, it's because the music sounds right and ifeel like it's good music, it touches me, and i want it to touch any other person in the world. it's not basically because... it's not really because it is this person and it is that person, it'sjust because it's music and it sounds good. 0k. so if it sounds good, then i wouldn't turn down the collaboration. if it doesn't sound good, then i will. cos davido said that western african artists don't need to push too hard, his argument was that, "we've got our own festivals. "i don't feel we need to do anything, we need to stick to the game, embrace our culture." his argument was partly that people are coming to africa, and he described the cycle as going the other way, the world is now coming to africa. yeah, i think that is afrobeats to the world, that's african music to the world, where everybody someday in the world will come to africa for festivals and not

the other way round. i feel like that is the dream. if you had to answer the question of who is piggybacking on whom, in your case, isjustin bieber riding on your success with afrobeats, or are you riding on his? is it a two—way cross? i feel like it's balanced. yeah? ..butjustin bieber is a way bigger artist than i am. you can't even deny the fact he has more, he's been there for forever. he's a legend. he has the whole world listening to him. and i'm just a kid from africa with a small community. you can't lie that africa is really big, but compared to the whole, the rest of the world, it'sjust a continent. so, yeah, someone like justin bieber has the whole world listening to him. and i'm just from africa and ijust have the african audience... ..you know, a little. well, now it's going global. it's true thatjustin bieber is helping me, helping other people discover me, because, yeah, i have a small audience, he has a bigger one.

now, you're not a political singer, at least not yet, as you say. but you have been vocal about police brutality in nigeria... yeah. ..particularly via the campaign, well, it was end sars. sars is a special anti—robbery squad that was set up to tackle armed robbery, carjackings, that sort of thing. it developed a reputation for brutality and it was disbanded as a result of the campaigns. and you've had your own experience of police brutality with sars, haven't you? yeah, i have, i have, a couple of times. what happened ? i think the whole situation is getting better or worse, i don't really know so much right now, but i feel like things are not what they used to be two years ago. i feel like things are getting better by the day. we're still in dark times, but i feel like things

are getting better by the day. yeah, i've had encounters with police a couple of times in nigeria, notjust in nigeria, africa, as a matter of fact, where you're not being treated nice, you're not being treated nice, you're being profiled for how you look, tattoos, what type of phones you use, the kind of car you're in, and stuff like that. and they just want to extort you, treat you bad, violate your human rights, and nobody cares. this is everywhere in africa, but i think it was really bad in nigeria, like, two years ago. it's still there, we're still fighting the fight, but i feel like we're getting better every day. ok, because you dedicated one of your music awards to the victims of shootings by police at lekki gate. and there were... ..amnesty international said at least 12 people were killed.

yeah. that was the lekki massacre. that was in 20... the end of 2020. the end of 2020, yeah. and that was the lekki massacre. i witnessed it, i was there. yeah, i had to dedicate the award to the people who lost their lives. it was all supposed to be a peaceful protest, but, the nigerian police, african police thing again. it's crazy. you were there protesting against it? yeah, i protested. and did you know people who were shot? i don't know them personally, but they were there at the protest grounds, so somehow i kind of know them. right. because you've also been arrested by police, haven't you? i have. and what happened when you were taken in, how were you treated? because of my status, because of who i am, sometimes they don't recognise me at first,

then later they do and theyjust let go. but for the common person, it's not that easy, it's not easy like that. you are maltreated, you are harassed, you are extorted. and they go on until... have you had to pay to be released? yes, a couple of times. this thing is a common practice in nigeria. i think it's a common practice in africa in general and a lot of african countries. but are you also stopped because you're young, you are presumably driving a nice car? definitely, a fast one, too. right. and so what, they see you and think, who is this guy? yes, theyjust profile you, because, you know, nigeria, especially, has this thing of yahoo boy, the scammers coming in and stuff. it's a talk that's all over, everywhere around. when they see you, they think that's what you do.

but inside that same nigeria, there are people who are educated, there are people who are doctors, there are people who are therapists, there are people who make arts, talented people everywhere. but because they have so exaggerated this whole scams thing, and theyjust think every young person on the streets in nigeria is a scammer, and the police, too, is the worst, they are the scammers themselves. because when they see a young boy, they don't want to listen. theyjust think you're a scammer and you have money and you have to pay them for being a scammer. but you were also arrested with the singer tems, after you were performing, and charged with violating covid regulations. those charges were eventually withdrawn. yeah, those charges were withdrawn. that was in 2020, 2021? you said, "the past few

days "have been some days have been some "of the toughest of my life, i wouldn't wish them on anyone", because of your experience inside? yeah, inside. yeah, it was a terrible one. so, this what i'm saying, i feel like this thing goes on... ..i feel this thing is a talk for africa, notjust a talk for nigeria, it's a talk for the whole of africa. in as much as i'm nigerian, and most of my experiences are in nigeria, but i feel like i have travelled africa at least a little and this is a whole african problem. i was treated bad in uganda, i was not treated right by the ugandan police, i was violated and stuff. and i feel like this is a whole general african problem, it's a whole african problem. and, yeah, i was arrested in uganda for violations that i didn't even know about, but the charges were dropped, like you said. yeah. and they were dropped because, what, you were able to pay

for the lawyers to get...? yeah. ifeel like there was a miscommunication, there was a miscommunication, but everything was sorted out, everybody understood their stance and they had to let go. it was a miscommunication from my team and the show promoters, from the show promoters to the government. what's the answer when you're talking about that? when we started talking about this, you said, "i don't know if it's getting better or getting worse," but you seem to think that maybe it's getting better? in some ways, i think it's getting better, in other ways, i think it's getting even worse, because every day it's like, in some ways... ..i don't really know. it's just like... first, there's so much to celebrate about africa, especially african music, there's so much to celebrate about african music, but there's still so much that

brings everything down. all the celebration, there is so much dragging it down, such as the police, the government, politics. ijust wonder, because burna boy described... ..most of his songs are against the government, his song collateral damage, where he sings about how politicians get rich as they watch others suffer. do you think it becomes risky if you start bringing politics into music, or do you feel that if you wanted to, you could just sing about whatever you want? yeah, i canjust sing about whatever i want. i don't feel like... i don't owe it to anybody how i want to make my music. this whole thing is just a state of the mind. if i start thinking about politics, or start getting myself involved with politics so much, then i'll definitely start making music about politics, but for now, i don't think i'm in that headspace. so, ijust make my music, the things that i find around

myself and the things that i enjoy. which started with what? rapping on a marine base in port harcourt. yes, exactly, exactly. when you were very young. mm—hm, mm—hm. yeah. and it goes on till now. and then, another thing is, i feel like there's so much to... everybody�*s playing their role. there's so much to cry about, there's so much to be angry about, especially as a black person, especially as a boy from africa, from nigeria. so, i'm trying my best to put a smile on people's face, i don't want... so much to be angry about? there's so much not to be happy about, especially coming from nigeria. you could see how the economics, the government, the this, the that, and everything, there's so much to steal your smile away. so, when i go to the studio a lot, ijust want to make people feel better, i don't

want to remind them about the problems. i feel like we already have musicians doing that for us, telling us about the problems. plus, i'm not even in the headspace to begin to tell you about the problems of the country. so, ijust want to make music for people to feel better. but for you, from rapping on the streets in that marine base to moving to lagos to producing music that's listened to around the world, i mean, here you are in london, you're performing here. that's been a remarkable ascent. yeah, that's growth, and i think all that came from the growth of afrobeats in general. yeah, all that came from the growth of afrobeats in general. and i'm blessed to be one of the people who is here right now when afrobeat is doing all of this madness. so what you're talking about, picking up cultural influences, is that obvious from the album just out, boy alone? ok, so the album is a whole,

like i said, this is a series of my experiences, how i've been feeling in the past two years. and i realised that i've been feeling down a lot the past two years, i've been feeling a lot unhappy and not at ease, not, you know, so the album isjust themed around all of that. i have a song on the album titled i'm a mess, titled temptation, i have a song on the album titled how to love. ijust realised that this is how i have been feeling the past two years, so i collected songs from every moment in the past two years and i made up the album with it. yeah, and it's boy alone. did you make it with the african market in mind or the global market? i don't have anybody in mind. i am purely african, nigerian. so, obviously, i make music as

an african, so it's mostly... ..originally it's for africans, but it doesn't change the fact that it's music and nobody owns it, it'sjust music, it's sound, everybody enjoys it how they want to enjoy it. so, the plan — to carry on making music. you've just signed a deal with kobalt music. yeah, ijust did. it's a long ride, i'm just barely two years in, two or three years in. but a few years ago, ghana's president, he made a global declaration talking about the year of the return, encouraging the diaspora to get involved in the culture of their homeland. it sounds almost, the way you're talking about afrobeats, as though you do have a form of mission, a mission to introduce the world to afrobeats. that's afrobeat to the world, that's what we keep saying, "african music to the world, "afrobeat to the world."

that's the plan, to wake up one morning and the whole world knows what afrobeat is, the whole world is dancing to afrobeat, the whole world is listening to afrobeat. that's the dream, that's the future, that's the plan. 0mah lay, thank you for coming on hardtalk. thank you for having me. you've probably heard already that a national emergency has been declared on account of this unprecedented heat wave. the english temperature record, which is also that of the uk, is going to get obliterated over the next few days, as indeed will

the record for wales. in scotland, probably getting there or thereabouts, northern ireland perhapsjust missing out, but this is an unprecedented spell of hot weather. a met office red extreme weather warning, the first one ever issued for all of these areas of england, including many of england's largest cities — that's in force for monday and tuesday, the peak of the heatwave. but across sunday through tuesday, for england and wales, southern scotland, we have a widespread amberwarning. impacts for health and infrastructure are expected. the next few hours see some showers push into northern scotland. look at these temperatures — this is as cool as our weather gets for the next few days. so, if you're up early sunday morning, take advantage of this cool air, open your doors, open your curtains, open your windows, let that cool air into your house and into your flat. the first couple of hours of the morning, shut everything — the windows, the doors, your curtains — shut that exceptional heat out.

we're going to see temperatures building widely into the 30s across england and wales as well. what follows on monday is a spell of dangerous heat. we've got sunshine across the board and temperatures hitting a0 celsius or so. the current uk temperature record is 38.7, so this is going to be the hottest day we've ever had in our country, and it's notjust the daytime temperatures. 0vernight, ten o'clock monday night, we're still widely into the 30s. that's going to be horrendous for getting a good night's sleep, hence the importance of keeping your flats and your houses as cool as possible. tuesday, we start to see some storms break out in the west, bringing some slightly fresher air into western areas, but otherwise, it's another day of dangerous heat. this heat is dangerous for people's health, so you can mitigate some of those problems. i've already mentioned some tips — keeping curtains closed, particularly on the sunlit side of your house, only open windows and doors if it is actually cooler outside. that will often be only at the end of the night.

drink plenty of water and remember, a cool shower can help you cope.

welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines: a report into the mass shooting at a school in texas in may finds systemic failures in the law enforcement response to the tragedy. wildfires triggered by extreme heat burn across southern europe. the high temperatures claim more than 1,000 lives. the five tory mps hoping to replace the prime minister borisjohnson have gone head to head in their second tv debate. if he wished to serve, who here would be happy to have boris johnson in the cabinet? please raise your hands.

not a single hand raised, we'll take a look at what this