While some see Gloria Ibru as a controversial musician, others still respect her endearing charisma. She has been in the entertainment industry for over 28 years nurturing younger acts to stardom. Despite the fact that she does not have any album to her credit, she still remains her relevance. Recently she invited friends and fans to listen to her first ever album where she spoke with ISAAC OGUNTOYE about her plans in 2015.
While listening to your single, I noticed it has different flavour like calypso, highlife, afrobeat and jazz. Are you jack of all trade and what is the similarity with Mama G music?
First of all I will say, Mama G has a sound and her sound is universal. Being an African, we must be able to replicate and locate that in our music and that’s why this delay came in the first place. Now, we are trying to showcase all the talents of Africans that we knowcalypso, highlife, afrobeat with jazz and concept music is what we have on this sound. That’s what we are showcasing to tell Africans or tell the world that this is coming from here and we have an identity and this music is going beyond just where we are.
After 28 years, you just released an album and how many songs do you have on it and what are the challenges you face in music?
It’s going to be a 10-track album eventually and the challenges are many. The whole album is played live. The music is stimulated and every instrument is played live. Now we do not have the facility in Nigeria to do that all at once. Today, we bring guitar, tomorrow we bring talking drum- it does not only take some time but it takes some money because time is money. Now, what we need to do is to encourage Nigerians that love music to come and invest in proper studios. After doing all these beats; we will have to send them to Los Angeles, USA for proper mixing because we don’t have the facility. If we Nigerians invest more in this; it will be cheaper for younger people to do music live. The reason why we are listening to this stimulated music is because live music is too expensive. The young people can’t afford it so, they go in and drop beat on keyboard and do whatever they want to do and then release it and that’s why we are not getting real music out of Nigeria
The new generation of Nigerians don’t seem to go along with real music, what is your view?
Real music is expensive. That’s why people do not believe in Asha and she is one of the bigger artistes in Nigeria even in the world. I am doing my music for Nigerians to appreciate it and I also want the rest of the world to appreciate it as well, which is why I am doing real music that you will see and say yeah, that’s good music!
What kind of innovation are you bringing into the music?
I am a very optimistic person. Gloria Ibru’s band is coming out to set its own standard to take over space. It is a brand of its own and that is what she is coming to represent. She is not coming here to make same moves like others in the industry. She is in a class of her own. Gloria is not coming to be anybody but herself.
When should we be expecting the album?
We are looking at March.
Are you planning to come out with a stage name?
I am Gloria Ibru and that is my stage name.
What inspires your music?
It is the love I have for it. whenever I am on stage; even when I hold the microphone, I am a different person to everyone.
What was your growing up like?
There was always music in my house. My mum loves music. She was a chorister.
How do you feel when negative stories are written about you?
I am not bothered about what the media says about me.
What is the issue about a younger lover you are said to be dating
I will try to explain what motivated it better. My life has always been a situation where I always want to ensure that everybody is happy. I hate to pass by and see someone sad. I will definitely ask if everything is okay and what I can do to help. Basically, the story of sugar mama was in my bar where everybody was happy and I saw a man walking with a strong face. I asked my barman if he knows the young man and he said no and that he has never seen him before but, the man was sad. I asked my barman what to do. We called him and asked him to come and join us to be happy for life. It’snot about sex or romance but it’s just about making a man happy
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