Foreign music labels, intent on promoting gifted Nigerian female artists, should first acquaint themselves with the industry’s history, which is replete with flash-in-the-pan success stories, writes Yinka Olatunbosun
From Evi-Edna Ogoli to Ayra Starr, Nigerian music scene has been awash with exceptional female music stars with great voices and powerful messages. But history has shown that their careers often peaked too soon. And maybe it is the same story in other climes for after former Fugees singer and rapper Lauren Hill broke the record at the Grammys with her first and only album as a solo artist, she was on a downslide – sentenced to prison for tax evasion. Even in South Africa, Brenda Fassie’s career was coloured with instances of personal struggles with drug addiction. She fought against apartheid but lost the struggle against her own demons and eventually died of cocaine overdose. Fassie’s songs still inspire goose-pimples till date. While most of these female artists take to other showbiz ventures, some simply desert the scene, leaving fans disappointed while rumour-mongers have a field day on their prolonged silence.
When Nigeria’s Queen of Reggae, Evi Edna Ogoli released her hit song “Happy Birthday”, it became a generational anthem for birthday ceremonies. The Isoko reggae musician who often sang in her indigenous language was the pride of the 80s, becoming a brand ambassador for Pepsi in 1990. Her exit from the stage lights was often linked with her separation from her producer and manager-husband. Though, she is still active in music, she reportedly lives in France.
Ogoli’s story is similar to Esse Aghese’s. Esse is known for popular songs like “Back to the Basics”. “Bendel Girl in Lagos” and “Fine Peppersoupe” amongst others. She has such a lovely voice and her kind of pop sound was way beyond the sound engineering techniques of the time. And the scintillating duet with Segun Arinze – “Dreams Come True” – was like any award-winning duet that the world had ever experienced: “Endless Love”, “Somewhere Out There”, “Islands in the Stream” and more. Anyway, Esse has since relocated to Ireland and there is very little known about her from reliable online sources.
Peggy Essiet of the Mandators fame sang alongside her husband Victor in songs such as “Rat Race” and “Apartheid” but left the music scene in the early 90s as a result of the harsh political climate in Nigeria. The couple divorced while in United States of America. Peggy died in 1999 and it seems Victor has not been forgiven as he was accused of abandoning her. No one got to see the beautiful Peggy rise in music beyond what she did with her husband.
Princess Bunmi Olajubu, who sang beautiful, cross-generational music anthems like “Bata Mi A Dun Koko Ka” and “Save Nigeria Today”, passed at 52 with a career that was abruptly pruned. Christy Essien-Igbokwe, fondly called the “Lady of Songs”, is famous for the certified platinum classic song “Seun Rere”. Though she hailed from Akwa-Ibom, she made the song a crossover hit of all time and later emerged as the first female president of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN). Igbokwe was a fighter on and off stage. EMIS, a private telephone company secured their license – the first of its kind – with her backing. At 50, she pulled off her fighting gloves as she died after a brief illness.
The Samba Queen, Stella Monye known for the love song “Oko Mi Ye” had a very promising music career but suffered a tragic setback with her son’s domestic accident. She was on a national assignment when this incident happened but like some heroes of Nigerian history, she didn’t get government intervention for her personal challenge. From calling for public donations to overseeing a series of surgeries for her son outside Nigeria, Monye was emotionally sapped and her comeback attempt is yet to land her on the centrestage.
Sasha P, the first lady of Nigerian hip-hop is a law graduate and the first Nigerian female artist to win the best Female award at MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA). Her stagecraft was constantly criticised for being lacklustre even though she spat the venom on the microphone. She wasn’t listed for shows and even with her hit comeback track “Adara”, she had to pursue her passion in fashion designing and humanitarian work.
Kelechi Ohia, the popular female rapper known as Kel is famed for the single “Waa wa Alright”. She was all shades of promises when she shot into the limelight with the right rap persona. Asides the scandals and rumours about her that linger on the internet, she has new music that are still many kilometres away from trending list.
The former OAP and rapper, Chemistry struck a chord with music fans when she featured in the collaboration initiated by DJ Jimmy Jatt. The album The Definition had the song titled “Too Much”, on which she featured before she left for US to reconnect with family. Blaise, another blazing rapper who featured on the same track, faded off the charts and slowly, the curtain closed on that era of music revolution.
Recently, Chidimma, with the moniker Miss Kedike cut her secular music career short when she launched into gospel. After the fake sex video saga, Chidimma didn’t quite recover from the shock of the double-edged nature of the secular music scene love and hate. Her gospel music choice was a very polarising moment for her already shrinking fan base. When Di’ja, the Mavin sensational singer, dropped “Awww”, the song enjoyed airplays and the mainstream music world’s attention was drawn for the first time in a while to a female singer from Northern Nigeria. Alas! She married and fans were divided. Some were happy while some thought she married at the peak of her career, which breaks an unwritten code for success in music. Maybe.
Perhaps, the most annoying short-lived fame was Cynthia Morgan’s. Her sexy patois in “German Juice” is still banging and yes, even-trained music ears couldn’t tell that she was a Nigerian singer and not a Jamaican when she first launched out. From a controversial personality to an uncontainable character, she was like the music version of Titanic. The seemingly unsinkable talent sank amid reports of lack of support from her manager and other funny stories.
This is 2021. And music fans again are showing love to another super-duper fly music artist Ayra Starr. At 19, she is “fully-booked” turning heads and butts with the smash hit, “Bloody Samaritan”. Tems, the 26-year-old singer on Wizkid’s billboard hit “Essence” is emerging fast on the international scene with collaborations with the Canadian rapper, Drake which has earned her a second entry on the Billboard Hot 100. Apart from Asa, she is the first alternative music artist to have reached such milestone in her budding career. It’s inevitable to think of her future as well as Ayra’s in the music industry that is very hostile to women. With the intervention of foreign music labels, the story may change for good for the truly gifted female artists. But first, they must get familiar with history, learn from the mistakes of others and the strength of the few successful female artists in Nigeria that can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
