MUSICIAN SIMI AND HER RISE TO THE LIME LIGHT

 

A lot of artists strive for uniqueness but for some, uniqueness comes naturally- Simi belongs in the latter category.
Christened into a family with no affinity for music and pop culture and having to deal with her parents divorce while she was just 9, music was anything but a straight forward journey for Simi.
Simisola Bolatito Ogunleye, is not a name that would ring a lot of bells but her simpler stage Simi would elicit a spark of recognition from most people.
“I didn’t have a lot of music in my childhood” the 28 year old told us when we caught up with her. Its a strange admission in a country where music and football are handled with equally religious fervor.


Simi says she was a then precarious and ambitious youngster, with a cheesy smile and slim frame and the usual simple beginning of singing in her church choir.
The Nigerian music industry is particularly ruthless, more so for women, who have found that they need to work harder than their male counterparts to stay relevant. Simi has kept at it regardless and she credits her work ethic and perseverance as the most important virtues in ensuring she has stayed relevant.
It hasn’t been rosy nonetheless despite being signed to X3M music record label (Which has the second runner-up of the 2008 project fame West Africa edition, Praiz in its crew). She released her first studio album in 2006 titled “Ogaju.”
Whelp. It wasn’t an instant hit.
Then, amid other songs, “Tiff” was delivered to the populace on June 9th 2014, and was met with positive reviews among music critics, earning the singer a ‘best alternative’ nomination in the Headies award.
“It was similar to the crossing of the red sea in the bible” Segun, a music critic said of the song in 2014.
“A giant leap from the regular album in Ogaju to a trending song in “Tiff”, from my experience it is now hard for music artists to build on this precedent.”
For Simi, it wasn’t.
It didn’t take long for the Ojueleba born artist to dash again into the limelight with the release of “Jamb Question,” accompanied with a remix which featured Falz.