On April 28, Stella Monye, one of Nigeria's veteran female singers rolled out the drums to celebrate both her 50th birthday and her 30 years on stage. The 'Samba Queen', as she is well known, said during a television interview she granted in Lagos that among other reasons she is staging a comeback is the fact that there are no female singers of note anymore.
Monye has, since, told our correspondent that what her statement implied was that her comeback to music is a bid to fill Mariam Makeba's shoes left empty since the South African legend's passing.
But the question is, how has the Nigerian female singer faired in the music industry?
Laolu Akins, one of Nigeria's foremost music producers, in his response, said that even though there are quite a number of the female singers around, "you cannot place them per se in terms of versatility. That is an artiste who is experienced enough to do all kinds of styles of music and is also creative enough to bring her own character into what she is doing".
Akins said that most of the songs one hears these days are sounding the same all through, as people are singing similar styles.
"And there is mostly copying of foreign singers. I mean, if you hear an Onyeka Onwenu, you can tell that it is Onyeka singing here. You hear a Christie Essien and Veno Marioghae. When you hear a Stella Monye, she is strong, she has got character, and she's got her own touch to what she sings. So, that is probably what she meant; female singers with tip-top character are not so many," he said.
He, however, concluded that there are quite a number of talented female singers with strong characters who haven't proven themselves yet as singers. He particularly commended Kenny St. Brown, whom he said is good, "and she hasn't ever stopped improving. Every time you hear her, she is stronger than before. That I like and I think she is working on getting better. Such character I want to find in many singers and how many of them can you mention?", he asked rhetorically.
Reminded about Asa, Akins responded that Asa is a peculiar type. Other names like Tiwa Savage, Lara George and Omawumi came up. "Tiwa Savage, yes", the producer acquiesced, but added that these, for him, are potentials and wondered how that is reflecting in their album sales.
"Omawumi is okay. She also is working towards greatness. But to be quite honest with you, these artistes mentioned are young. I am sure that hopefully, gradually, they will get to the point where we can now scream about them and wherever you go, people can talk about them. But right now, they are not at that point yet, but I can tell you that all of them have got talent and I know that they can do very well. But from the point of view of Stella Monye, maybe she is trying to say that female performers who get on stage and they can just go and still can hold on to their character and still affect people without any effort and you can remember them for their last performance. I think that is what she is saying," he said.
Monye, who insisted her comeback bid to the music industry was not because of a dearth of female artistes, said that what has been her recent mantra is the desire to fill Miriam Makeba's shoes. "I'm not saying I'm making a comeback because there are no female artistes... of course I couldn't have said that. I may have said that there is a vacuum; I know I have been saying that. In recent time I have been saying that there is a need for someone to fill (Miriam) Makeba's shoes", she explained.
Asked what she thinks of the Nigerian female artistes, particularly the new ones coming on stream.
"The truth is that we don't have a lot of them now coming up like Tiwa Savage, Chidinma, Omawunmi and Kefee. The four of them are doing very well and they are great singers. In our own time, we had more women coming out to slug it out", Monye said.
On what she feels is responsible, the Samba Queen said one of the reasons is that life has become expensive.
"What I mean is that in our own time, we had professional record companies, you will go through scrutiny, through every professional aspect of it before you will ever be recorded, unlike now that people just go to the market, buy tapes and begin to record by themselves and go to the market by themselves. There was nothing like that in our own time", Monye said.
She also recalled that back then, a musician had to go through a panel and the demo went through the normal process, as one did not just wake up and become a musician.
She, however, said that female artistes have more opportunities now because they can do anything. "They can just wake up as long as they have funds and become anything they want to become. That is not saying they are not doing good; so it is more expensive now because you have to pay your way. I even hear that in Alaba, you will pay to put your music on the compilation and then they will sell and pocket the money", she said.
Monye explained that female artistes, more than ever before, face a bigger challenge now unlike when they had professional recording companies, A& R (Artists and Repertoire), management, marketing, in-house producers, everything.
In spite of these challenges, she is staging a comeback?
"Like I said, I am not staging a comeback to be singing repetition songs. No, I am staging a comeback to fill Mariam Makeba's shoes, the vacuum that has been there for so long. Mariam Makeba was a definite positive artiste and she took South Africa and put them on the map of the world. All the foreign concerts that I went to on behalf of Nigeria, I met her there and I know the kind of respect they accord her being who she is and coming from where she came from", she said.
For Dr. Ola Balogun, who founded and leads the Iroko band, the real problem is that there is a lack of professionalism in the music industry.
"Music production is going backwards and music is more and more rudimentary. There is no attempt to compose or arrange music, so the result is a disaster", he said.
He explained that some of the musicians are products of hype, so you don't know who is who again. "Eighty percent of them have no talent at all. They are not musicians; they are karaoke artistes who only sing along. My girl stands out, Sola Ajado, 'Chichi' for short, who is the lead singer for Iroko", Balogun said.
He explained that there is also a racket going on since what happens is that some of the managers of these people are very media savvy, hence they use connections in the media and can bribe their way through.
Tintin Imevbore, who founded and runs iGroove Radio said much the same when he spoke to our correspondent in an earlier interview.
"Many radio stations are deciding for the audience in what direction they should go. They are only playing the commercial sounding songs of today. Those songs do not represent the majority of music that comes out of Nigeria. There is a lot of live music that people don't get to listen to", he said.
Tintin added then that starting the iGroove internet radio was his way of trying to bring back the soul in Nigerian music since a lot of Nigerian music today is too fast.
National Mirror
Of course the industry need female voices. The male have taken over a very long time ago so I expect to see girls.