The Louisiana, Bristol, GB
Sunday, 3 May 2026
7:00pm
£15 + BF
16+ (under 18s to be accompanied by a responsible adult)
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A whole multitude of worlds exist within the music of Tommy WÁ, one of the most special new voices to have emerged in recent years. Drenched in beauty and meaning, the music of the Nigerian-born, Ghana-based artist recalls the glistening atmospheres of Bon Iver and Michael Kiwanuka but has its roots in the African folk music of the mid-20th century. Presented through pristine hooks and vivid storytelling, it’s music that straddles eras, styles and continents, but has universality at its core. Born in Ibadan, western Nigeria, the radio was WÁ’s earliest introduction to music. Growing up on a diet of the traditional folk music styles of Jùjú and Fuji from his home country, this foundation then mixed with the African pop sounds of the mid-2000s, which he found after moving to the city of Abuja as a child. One radio station, Splash, played foreign music, and WÁ remembers a particularly formative moment when hearing Linkin Park and Jay-Z’s ‘Numb (Encore)’ for the first time. “I looked for that song for four years after that!” he smiles. From there, he was able to find music from across the planet and the genre spectrum, with The Lumineers, The Black Keys and more becoming firm favourites. These dual set of influences define WÁ’s charm and individuality as a songwriter. His foundation in west African folk music is in the bones of his songwriting, while masses of both foreign and more modern homegrown influences can also be clearly heard. The music he makes and the stories he tells are distinctly African, but determined to break beyond the continent’s borders and reach universality. “I didn't really think about it as a child,” he says of this blending of worlds. “All of this is other people's reflections on what is Western and what is African. To me, I was just churning out my own reality as a kid raised [speaking] English. My parents were colonised, and I became a product of their being and their consciousness. In school, they would beat us, or at least we’d pay a fine, if we spoke our own language and dialect at school.” After moving to Accra, Ghana to study sociology and politics aged 18, WÁ found himself coming of age at the same time as the influential Alté movement was having its moment. Coined by the Nigerian group DRB LasGidi, it translates to "individualistic and non-traditional modes of self-expression". WÁ says: “We had grown up with all this Western media – why not sing it in our own way and make it more interesting?” With streaming becoming far more accessible, he dove into the thriving SoundCloud scene from west Africa and into more underground and leftfield sounds. Forays into gigs as a documentary photographer and content strategist followed, with money from those day jobs being funnelled back into recording what would become debut EP Roadman and Folks. A remarkable debut collection, the seven-song collection introduced a songwriter with an irresistible, honeyed voice and a knack for immediate hooks. On the fascinating ‘Gravity’, he blends acoustic sounds with rap, electronica and more with flamboyance, also collaborating with SuperJazzClub on the smooth ‘Late Night on Lokko Street’. In 2024, after spending years becoming savvy to the machinations of the music industry and learning how to get noticed as an independent artist, WÁ signed to Dirty Hit to re-release Roadman and Folks. “My vision started to show itself,” he says of the journey, seeing his own success as a bridge to help others from his region break beyond perceived barriers to international success. “I want other people to be able to do this, so I'm gonna learn how to do it for them,” he says. He will release his first new music for the label with upcoming second EP, Somewhere Only We Go, this summer. The music on the new EP is unashamedly open-hearted and vulnerable, building on his debut collection with a new set of songs that are sharper and more defined. Opening track ‘Guitar Boy’ is a reference to Operation Guitar Boy, the code name for an attempted coup d'état in Ghana in 1967, as well as an interpolation of the ‘60s smash hit ‘Guitar Boy’ by Nigerian star Victor Uwaifo. It symbolically presents the blending of worlds between his two homes – countries that “share a very romantic relationship of migration,” he says – as well as the influence of the world beyond African borders. Elsewhere, he steps into lightness and positivity on ‘God Loves You When You’re Dancing’ and to triumphant resilience on ‘Keep On Keeping On’. There’s a classic feeling to WÁ songwriting, an unwillingness to obscure the pure emotion at the songs’ core. As he says with a smile: “It’s not a white man thing to think about a sunset!” The emergence of Tommy WÁ brings a personal story to light, but he’s equally determined to carry those from his communities in Nigeria and Ghana along on the ride. “I want to bring these realities into view. It’s about the power of free expression,” he says of the music and community he wants to show to the world, finally free to exist outside traditional and genre- or continent-specific boxes. “It can totally be you. You can dance, you can think, you can wander. You can allow yourself to be lost and it still be African and still be as authentic. It’s showing that these kinds of expressions can come from this person. You don’t have to suppress anything – just be you as much as you can be.”
Show starts at 7:00pm.
