JADAR

Opening the first night of Manchester Literature Festival this year was none other than legendary Swedish singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry – in conversation with British author and academic Bernadine Evaristo OBE FRSL FRSA – as part of her A Thousand Threads Tour.

The event started about 15 minutes late. There was a little introduction by someone from MLF, before Bernadine and Neneh arrived onstage. Usually, the host arrives onstage first, gives an intro, before introducing the guest – but I guess MLF did not feel the need to have two introductions.

Bernadine assured us that they had been waiting in the wings for 15 minutes – there had been no diva behaviour; there had just been some issue with the box office.

Indeed, for such an icon, Neneh is incredibly modest and humble. She exuberated elegance and appeared to be genuinely grateful that so many people had come to see her, not sing, but rather discuss her memoir – something only true fans will do.

After the talk, Neneh took the time to sign books. I told her that ‘Buffalo Stance’ is one of my favourite songs – and my Spotify knows this because it randomly plays it constantly. “That makes me very happy because you’re very young,” she told me. After the show, she messaged me to tell me that it was lovely to meet me and to thank me for coming. She’s a Diva but she ain’t no diva!

Bernadine admitted that she was surprised by how humble Neneh is – one does not expect such humility from such a star – and wondered if this was partially because of “tall poppy syndrome” (a cultural phenomenon where people criticise, resent, or attack others who are successful or have high status) in Scandinavian countries. Neneh acknowledged the phenomenon but explained that she has always been grounded.

An audience member asked her if she gets recognised out and about. She said that she does sometimes, and most people are lovely, but she has had a few strange comments, such as a man in John Lewis telling her, “You used to be Neneh Cherry.”

She admits that she has filters and probably does not always realise that people are looking at her because, growing up as a woman of colour in Sweden in the 1960s and 70s, she was used to people looking at her.

Indeed, race, along with gender, were things that came up on a few occasions – inevitable, with a Black female host and a Black female guest. The women provided some insightful commentary, though it was refreshingly academic, rather than emotional or activistic, which worked well for the intellectual nature of the talk.

Bernadine mainly spoke to Neneh about the contents of the memoir, but the memoir covered so much of Neneh’s life, and so many topics, that Bernadine managed to cover a lot of bases, so that the audience could learn all about different aspects of Neneh’s life. I’ll admit, I knew very little about Neneh previously: I became obsessed with ‘Buffalo Stance’, maybe last year, and was curious to learn more about the Black Swedish woman behind this musically multilayered, hip-hop, dance-pop bop – and, boy, did I.

Neneh spoke affectionately about her parents – Monika “Moki” Karlsson, a Swedish painter and textile artist, and Ahmadu Jah, a Sierra Leonean musician and the son of a tribal chief, who moved to Stockholm to study engineering.

She spoke about her marriages to Bruce Smith (the American drummer of The Pop Group) and Cameron “Booga Bear” McVey (a British music producer), who she has been with for 40 years (she had to ask him, in the audience, how long they had been married for!). She spoke about moving to the UK as a teenager, falling pregnant as a teenager, and her mother’s death. It was all very candid, though she did not talk about certain more harrowing topics, such as the sexual assault she suffered as a teenager.

An audience member admitted to being inspired by her fashion, and even buying an outfit similar to the iconic outfit she wore on Top of the Pops when she was seven months pregnant! She asked Neneh who her fashion influences were; Neneh revealed that, at the time, they MC Lyte, Roxanne Shanté, and Queen Latifah: “Those women of that time were pivotal to me.”

I had seen Janet Jackson just days before and tagged MC Lyte in a video of Janet performing their song, ‘You Want This’, which Lyte had “liked”, so I had a feeling she might want to know about this. Indeed, she responded, “Yesssssss”, and shared the clip to her own story.

Earlier in the talk, Neneh had revealed that she loved reading. Bernadine, an author, had been impressed to discover – in the memoir – that Neneh had read similar authors to her, such as Angela Davis.

An audience member asked Neneh what she was currently reading, and Neneh admitted that she has hardly read anything since she begun writing her memoir (because she did not have the headspace and did not want infiltration nor to compare herself). However, she revealed that the next book she plans to read is A Memoir of Lucian Freud (the grandson of Sigmund Freud) by his daughter (and Neneh’s friend), Rose Boyt. “She’s read my book, and I have not read her book – it’s terrible,” she said, to laughter from the audience.

“I just wanna say, Neneh, you have been absolutely incredible,” said Bernadine. “You’ve been so open, so honest, so interesting… so modest.”

Manchester Literature Festival runs until November 8.

Photo: Jay Darcy @JaDar