After 7 Years of Free Shows, This is My Time...Yemi Alade
Nigeria's 'Jonny' crooner, Yemi Alade, has expressed her satisfaction over the fame the hit track brought for her.
She explained to Leadership newspaper that the song 'Johnny' was just the vehicle to use in re-announcing her into the industry after struggling for so long to show her presence since winning the Peak talent hunt show in 2009.
“Yeah! It is my time to be heard. Johnny was just the vehicle to re-announce me in the industry. A lot of hilarious comments have been made on account of the Johnny video; you know it was a star studded cast directed by Clarence Peters. What people don't know is that the Johnny song was leaked in Enugu and it took on a life of its own! It took just 7 hours to shoot the video and it has become a success story. Also, my debut album, 'King of Queens' was released in last quarter of 2014 and it has sold over a thousand copies,” she said.
Recalling her foray into the money spinning world, the singer explained that she was actually influenced by her mum who likes playing gospel music and had to give her the much needed push to try something in music.
“I started singing when I was young. Dad used to play King Sunny Ade's music; mum was a fan of gospel tunes. My brothers used to play a lot of Usher and R Kelly songs, but I never wanted to do music. It was my mum that exposed me to it and made me take to it. I never planned to do music. I'm grateful to her now. You know that I won the Peak Talent Show in 2009 and I took off from there," she explained.
"It was not an easy road to get to where I am now. I give God the glory. I still plan to read music someday and add to my knowledge. Now, I'm passionate about music. My management, headed by Taiwo Alli, has been working hard to push my music and my brand and it is yielding results now. We are doing better music now and shooting better videos. But the beginning was rough as expected. I did seven years of free shows going from one club to the other and selling myself,” she stated.