5 NIGERIAN MUSICIANS WHO HAVE REPORTEDLY GONE FROM STARDOM TO OBLIVION
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Music is a spiritual thing, Fela Kuti once said and in Nigeria, so many young individuals have been gifted with this ‘spiritual thing’.
However, it is no lie to note that the Nigerian music industry is littered with the carcasses of one-hit wonders and artistes who have gone from thrilling audiences to almost having no ground in the music industry anymore.
Below is a list of 5 Musicians who have reportedly gone from Stardom to Oblivion.
Weird MC
Shola Idowu’s claim to fame is her nineties hit song, Allen Avenue. But her hit song, Ijoya, shot her to another level of prominence. The song took the country by storm and it was a DJ’s favourite for a long time. The animation music video of the song also helped to extend its popularity and shelf life.
She is known for her tomboyish nature. Little wonder she adopted the moniker, Weird MC.
However, Weird MC has been unable to enjoy the same attention she did with Ijoya. She recently revealed that she had become a born again Christian but her style of music wouldn’t change. Originally based in the United Kingdom before the growth of her music career, it is believed that she has since gone back to live in the European country.
Konga
Lawal Olumo, aka Konga, breezed into the industry rapping in Yoruba language. His hit song, Baby Konga, was widely received by fans and it seemed he was in to stay for the long haul.
At one time, he was a favourite for collaborations as many artistes wanted to work with him. His collaboration with X-Project on the song, Lori le, will not be forgotten in a hurry. He also recorded other songs such as Ja won si (featuring 2baba) and Jedi Jedi (featuring Olu Maintain).
However, the singer seemed to fizzle out of reckoning just as fast as he came. Now, many music lovers may have difficulty remembering his name.
Paul Play Dairo
Paul Play Dairo built on his father, IK Dairo’s legacy to make an entry into the music industry by doing a remix of the latter’s popular song, Mo so Rire.
Even though he was initially labelled an impostor who was riding on the coat-tails of his late father to court fame, he proved cynics wrong by releasing more hit songs such as Angel of my Life, Forever, You and Me, among others.
However, it seems Paul Play’s creative juices have stopped flowing for a while now. The singer has blamed his absence from the scene on health challenges that left him incapacitated for a number of years but he has been on his feet for some years now without a hit song to his name. But the singer insists that he is not under any pressure to stage a comeback. According to him, he is not in competition with anyone.
“You don bash my car (you have hit my car)” is a sentence that is usually heard on Nigerian roads. Tony Tetuila banked on the popularity of the phrase to shoot himself into reckoning with his song, My Car. Before that, he was a member of the defunct group, Remedies, with Eedris Abdulkareem and Eddy Montana.
Tony released My Car in 2001 and it was an instant hit. For some years after the release of the song, Tetuila continued to dominate the Nigeria (nay African) music landscape with hit tracks such as My heart go Jigi Jigi, Your kind of Woman, Fefe na Efe, and Omo Pupa.
However, the singer’s career soon experienced a decline and he hasn’t been able to reestablish himself as a leading artiste.
The singer is now a politician but he hasn’t really made headway in that regard. He contested the Irepodun Local Government Area seat of the Kwara State House of Assembly in 2015, albeit unsuccessfully.
Olu Maintain
Even though Olumide Edwards Adegbulu, aka Olu Maintain, is not the originator of the ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ slang, he surely popularised it. His 2007 hit song, Yahooze, contained in his debut solo album of the same title, was one of the biggest tracks of that time.
The song, which glorified lavish spending after hitting pay dirt, resonated with a lot of youths within and outside the country.
Years after the Yahooze album, the singer came out with another hit titled, Nawti, but since then, there has been an eerie silence from him.
However, it should be noted that Yahooze isn’t Olu’s original claim to fame. He was once a member of the defunct pop group, Maintain, together with Tolu Ogunniyi, and they had hits such as I Catch Cold and Nibo la wa gbe lo, to their names. The group held sway in the nineties but they went into oblivion shortly after before Olu bounced back as a solo artiste
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