SPOTLIGHT
Born to a veteran music entrepreneur, 11-year old Fatiah Kanyinsola Ojediran is in love with Afropop music, though she detests its misuse and the display of immorality by too many commercial Afropop artistes in the bustling Nigerian music industry.
So, she is blazing a brand-new trail for herself in the youthful subgenre.
Watching her dad, Mr. Abiodun Ojediran, over the years as he mentored, managed and promoted several music artistes to fame and fortune under his prestigious record label – Climax Records, Fatiah whose stage name is spelt and pronounced Phatiah has paid a close attention to her dad’s trade to gain unfiltered and unfettered mentorship for her budding craftsmanship.
Endowed with a refined upbringing from the United Kingdom where she was born on August 26, 2008, Phatiah has grown continuously with her increasing exposure to the heart of the Nigerian music industry under her dad’s tutelage.
She has been developing her personality and music talents into skills to project her passion of entertaining and inspiring youths to excellence while advocating for their quality education and upbringing.
However, Phatiah detests the lewd and ludicrous lyrics and the obscene pictures that typify lots of the songs and music videos dominating the contemporary mainstream music industry in Nigeria.
Reflecting her distaste for the ill trend, she subconsciously developed a streak for the “conscious music” subgenre: the timeless class of music that laces conscience-pricking lyrics and choruses that arouse self-consciousness all around soothing instrumentals and danceable beats which sometimes may not be so danceable.
Nigerian-French singer, songwriter and recording artiste, Asa, the “Fire on the Mountain” crooner; Omawumi Magbele of “If You Ask Me” fame; Beautiful Nubia with his surprisingly popular danceable and undanceable folksongs, and even our former music starlet Benita Okojie with her vernacular hit songs among others, are Nigerian epitomes of our indigenous conscious music among several others.
Quite distinctively though, Phatiah’s revival of the conscious music sub in Nigeria arises with an innovative blend of drumbeats, the danceable African percussion specialty, short but strong verses of motivational lyrics, memorable melodic chorus and soothingly melodious tunes. All these and more together spice her songs in readily danceable singles, finely blended for children’s occasions and kiddies’ parties, miles away from those that are played for listening pleasure only, undanceable, and good when not for dancing.
With two earlier singles – “Education” and “Love Is All We Need”, her third and recently released single “Leaders of Tomorrow” is already consolidating and illuminating her niche of the “conscious Afropop” in the Nigerian music field.
Commenting about the new single, Phatiah said, “I made ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ with the aim to draw public attention in a world-class standard to the challenges that children face in this part of the world, especially in a standard that meets the objectives of the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF)”.
And quite evidently, her world-class standard is meeting the objectives of other stakeholders too including governments, corporate organisations, top concert promoters and top music acts.
Also recently at a state occasion, Phatiah who is a young lookalike of Nigeria’s Asa, the majestic songbird, wowed the guests as she delivered on stage a majestic rendition of the national anthem, signaling the opening of events at the public inauguration of the second term in office of Alhaji Yahaya Bello as the Governor of Kogi State, Nigeria.
Remarkably, the promising music act and youth development advocate is already a brand ambassador of a blooming real estate company, Numatville.
Severally she has been awed by her audiences’ ovations when honoured to stage her craft at rave live performances including Star Kids Awards; Music and Message Concert at the Freedom Park, Lagos; One Lagos Fiesta; Lagos State University Music Concert; Lagos State Music Fiesta and the 2018 Nigeria Independence Party staged in Lagos.
Phatiah, a JSS 2 student of the prestigious Starfield College, Lagos and an indigene of Ogun State in Southwest Nigeria, already has in her kitty numerous awards won across the nation, thanks to her lyrics composed in classic and simple but sensible English language. Some of her awards are the ENYA Award for Most Outstanding Kid 2018; Arise O’ Nigeria Award for Most Outstanding Kid 2019; Coolwealth Award for Best Kid Artiste 2019, and ENYA Award for Best Kid in Music Entertainment 2020.
Currently, Phatiah’s new video for the ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ single is enjoying a frequent play on air on radio and online in mainstream music channels including YouTube. The video was directed by the award-winning music cinematographer, Olalekan Buari aka Unlimited LA, the Computer Science and Mathematics graduate from the Lagos State University and bubbly brains behind several popular music videos in the bustling Nigerian music market for top artistes including 2face, the Mavin Crew, Olamide, Burna Boy, Sean Tizzle, Skills, Pasuma, etc
With her passion to impact humanity positively, visiting and donating gifts to the less privileged youths and schools including the Modupe Cole Memorial Childcare Treatment Home School, Akoka, Lagos, Phatiah the young pianist is already touching lives with her conscious Afropop music
and philanthropy. And her stardom is just beginning…
