Nigerian Afro house singer, BET Award nominee is the cover star for Vanguard Allure’s July edition. The singer speaks to the magazine about her journey in the Nigerian music industry, learning through the process, her debut album, her style of music and more.
Read excerpts from her interview below:
On what inspired her first single Ibadi: My first single Ibadi was inspired by the need to be myself and to represent as a Yoruba girl. I wanted people to understand why Yoruba women move their backside when they dance. It was an introduction to Niniola the singer and dancer.
On her journey in the Nigerian music industry: I’ll say I’m thankful because I didn’t know that by now, I’ll be where I am. I still have a long way to go. I’ll just say that everything is still a learning process for me.
On what informs her style of music: Niniola is very Afrocentric. I don’t think I belong anywhere else other than Africa, my birth continent. I understand my mother tongue and I use it to my advantage. I used to be a ballet singer, purely a ballet singer but I love to dance as well. So I told myself let me infuse this too so that I can sing and dance and generally have fun.
On her her plans for world domination and how her gender has not played a role in his success: Speaking for myself, I’ll say hard work has helped me grow the way I’ve grown. When I was coming into the industry I told myself that “Niniola, you’re coming to do music and quality music and I told myself I wasn’t going to see the work as gender-based and I’m going to come and excel.
I said I was going to come and do dance music and my song will get into the club and with God’s grace, hard work and perseverance plus my team and if that has worked for me so far, it just goes to show that hard work pays at the end of the day. So it’s not about gender.
Source: Bella Naija
