Angela Uhegwu Finds Her Voice as S.O.U.L.A.S.P.H.E.R.E.

Angela Uhegwu, who performs as S.O.U.L.A.S.P.H.E.R.E., is a Houston-born Nigerian musician, videographer, and visual artist. Her visual catalogue on her YouTube channel features a variety of work including live performances and music videos. Her main instrument is the ukulele, and her introduction to music comes from her upbringing in an African household with plenty of parties and celebration through song.

For Angela, the inclusion of both her Nigerian and queer identities is pivotal in her work. Most notably, her music video for Lov’in the W.R.O.N.G 1 features her in a relationship with another woman. Outside of that project, Angela makes a constant effort to incorporate queerness within her work by hiring videographers and crew to be part of visuals that depict same-sex couples.

Despite being constantly surrounded by music growing up, her decision to pursue music as a career was not received well by her family. “Being a musician in an African household…was very hard for me,” Angela explains. “It wasn’t that I was gay in my home, but it was that I was a musician in my home. When my parents came to America, they really only focused on the ‘serious jobs,’ so that’s where I had so much pushback when it came to support from my family.”

Angela found support in her community through the T.R.U.T.H. Project, a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and mobilize LGBTQ communities of color and their allies through social arts that promote mental, emotional, and sexual health.With the guidance of Kevin Anderson, founder and CEO of the organization, Angela was able to see her passion as something sustainable. “The T.R.U.T.H. Project may have been a big stepping stone in my journey in music and just being who I am as an artist,” Angela says.

So far in her artistic career, Angela has come across multiple experiences that made her begin to explore the spiritual aspect of her craft. Having performed on multiple occasions, Angela noticed how her music provokes a physical reaction from audience members, with one person coming up to her after a show in tears. Angela herself is not unscathed from this type of response, as there has been an instance in which she listened back to an unreleased song and became emotional, finding there being an entire story within it.“I felt like my soul started to write my music, and with those songs that I do perform, I feel like they’re charged with an energy that can be felt by people … so I’m just learning more about this spiritual aspect of music and the energy in the songs,” Angela says.

Angela plans on returning to Houston after moving away two years ago, her experiences at both Baltimore and Los Angeles further inspiring her to connect more with her Houston community. Interconnectedness and community is at the core of S.O.U.L.A.S.P.H.E.R.E, as Angela’s music, lyricism, and visual work conveys feelings of loss, uplift, and is undeniably queer. Projects such as her music videos include family members and friends, further enhancing the overall feeling of familiarity prevalent within both her Nigerian and queer identities.

“My biggest accomplishment is just using my voice, because even being like an African child and a girl, I felt like having a voice was not really a popular thing,” Angela explains. “Just being able to continue to exercise that is something I’m proud of—and it makes me nervous, but I do it anyway and try my best.”

Keep up with S.O.U.L.A.S.P.H.E.R.E on Instagram Instagram @s.o.u.l.a.s.p.h.e.r.e