I'm not into commercial music but still make good money - Timi Dakolo

Nigerian vocal powerhouse and king of soul music, Timi Dakolo, who came into the limelight in 2007 af­ter he emerged winner of the inaugural season of Idols West Africa is an amazing talent. In this interview with MERCY MICHAEL, he speaks about his journey to stardom, family and career.

Exactly eight years ago, at the West African Idol show, his whole story changed after he won. Speaking about how life has been, he said, “Life has been very fair to me if I must sum things up in all honesty. It has had its ups and downs but there’d been more ups than downs. If for noth­ing, the fact that I got married, I have children and I have been doing mu­sic the way I want to do it is enough. And these things have been paying off in a lot of ways. I would not say that I’m where I want to be yet, but I’m not also where I used to be.”

Quite a lot of stars have their grass to grace story and Timi is no excep­tion in this regard. However, he put the record straight on the no­tion that he sold recharge cards to survive as an undergraduate at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State. According to him, “I didn’t re­ally sell recharge cards as a vendor, but you know when you’re broke in school and someone sends you re­charge cards from wherever they are, if the person sends you like N1,500 recharge card, why would you load it? You’d sell it for like N1300 or N1,400 and use the mon­ey to survive. There were times like that, but to God be the glory.”

A peek into the reality show that brought him and fellow act Omawu­mi Magbele into public conscious­ness – did he feel threatened by Omawumi’s presence in the debut edition of the West African Idol in 2007 because she was equally the au­dience’s toast? “Well, it was a compe­tition and sincerely everybody was a threat at a point because there was something unique in everyone. But when we got to a particular level, I knew for sure that Omawumi Mag­bele was going to give me problems. So, I was watching her performance than anybody else,” Timi said.

Curious to know their current relationship, he said, “We still talk, we’re cool and I even visit her at home sometimes.”

Timi signed to Sony BMG record­ing deal when he won the competi­tion. Did he continue any other deal with them? “I don’t have any rela­tionship with them other than the first one,” he said.

Sometimes, he has been said to sound like Michael Bolton and at other times, like John Legend, but the singer said, “I listen to a lot of music and I think as a person, that’s one of the best ways of gathering information. Whether I sound like them or not, I don’t even know. It has always depended on the kind of song I want to sing. I don’t fashion my singing style after anybody but I also think that it’s a great honour to be compared to these acts.

“I do get these remarks from oth­er people. Yes, I get that a lot and it humbles me,” he said.

In 2014, Timi stormed the stage with a full band and a cast to per­form one of his tracks, Iyawo Mi, at The Headies. Wondered if he knew he was going to win, he said, “It was a performance and you had to bring your best team forward; that was what I simply did. Everybody that mattered in the industry was there and I couldn’t deliver less. What is worth doing is worth doing well.”

It is easy to think his wife is bless­ed to have such a fine singer for a husband who will constantly wake her up with a sweet sound but it is not so. But to the chagrin of his fans, his wife confessed on a TV interview that he hardly sings for her as the world believes. “(Chuckles) don’t mind her o, I still sing but it’s just that it doesn’t work again after these kids. I still sing for her, it’s just that somehow, it doesn’t work the mag­ic like before.”

To say that Timi Dakolo bond­ed with former President Good­luck Jonathan is to state the obvious. Does he have anything he misses about him? “Of course, I miss him. I keep telling people that the man is a good man with good intentions but a lot of people misunderstood him. A lot of things might not have gone the way he planned but God knows best. This country is ours and there’s nowhere else we can run to. All we want is a better country for our chil­dren and our children’s children no matter what happens.”

In a country where commercial singers are making millions of nai­ra and getting brand endorsements from big firms, only those who ap­preciate the art celebrate the likes of Timi and sing their praises. “If only people’d know that I’m doing very well and making my cool money! I go for events that are not even an­nounced – most of the birthday and wedding gigs I perform at, people don’t even know about them. It’s not that I sit back at home and just do songs without getting invitation to events at the mainstream. The kind of music I do is the kind I want to do. I love where I am and every­body cannot be giving Nigeria the kind of songs you hear all over to­day,” he stated.

Haven done a couple of works with Cobhams Asuquo with quite a synergy between both of them, how did their paths cross and how would he describe him? “We met af­ter the West African Idol show and started talking as friends, but right now, we’re more than friends, we’re brothers,” he enthused.

Timi’s ‘Iyawo Mi’ was produced by the iconic Cobhams Asuquo. It is a love letter delivered with the trademark vocals that set Dakolo apart – a traditional melody sur­rounded by horns. It is another classic from an artiste that takes his craft very seriously. “I have been ex­cited to share this beauty of a song with my fans across the world. This also comes straight from the heart, and it’s a delight to share,” Dako­lo added.

Some singers say that their songs are mainly inspired by the beats, it is not that much the same for Timi Dakolo. According to him, “I write my songs first, all of them. The beat doesn’t come first; it’s the melody that comes first.”

He was at the Nigerian Idol show to tutor the contestants. Speaking on how he felt, he said, “It felt great and it reminded me of how far I’ve come. I’ve been on both sides of the table. It’s like a mighty leap – first, I came here wanting to win this show and now I’m here to mentor contestants. We might not know where the road leads, but it does lead somewhere and that was what crept into my mind when I was with the contestants.

Sometimes, musicians have fa­vourite tracks from their many singles that they themselves like to wish to sing to. But in Timi’s case, it is not so because, “The songs that get me excited are the ones I’m writ­ing at any point in time; it’s never the one I’ve written. Once I’ve writ­ten a song and listened to it, I move on. It’s only the next one that I’m working on that fascinates me be­cause I can sing it all day.”