Stella Monye: My Regret is Not Commercialising My Music
Stella Monye, the “Oko Mi ye” crooner, was a popular name in the 80s when she released her hit album, “Mr. Right.” She dominated the national scene and participated in several tours, both at home and abroad, representing Nigeria. However, the accident her son, Ibrahim, had while she was on one of the international tours seriously affected her career and slowed her down. She speaks with Ferdinand Ekechukwu about her life, career, son as well as advises the present crop of female artistes about how to remain focused.... excerpts
an you bring us up to date about your life and music career at the moment?
CNot much has been done. I’ve been away because of my son’s medical condition. We’ve been away in the United States trying to undergo treatment for him. I’m sure a lot of persons know about my son’s incident and are aware of the accident he had some years back when I was on a national engagement. I had to put a stop to my career because I felt if I hadn’t gone away on career work and national engagement my son wouldn’t have had the accident because I would have kept an eye on him. So, because I felt guilty that I was not there for him as a mother, that’s why what happened to him, happened to him, I had to take time off. I had to go on break from my career to attend to him. The surgery has taken a toll on him as he has had so many surgeries. We have been to India and back. Then we left for the US after going to many hospitals in Lagos. It’s been a very long, tormenting journey. But we thank God he’s almost there. He’s still undergoing systematic medical procedure at NYU Langdon Health, New York. So, that’s where we are now. Recently, I recorded a single that will be released by an American producer who wrote me a song out of inspiration and sent it to me. I have done the song and I have sent it back to him, I don’t know what the outcome of that will be. But I look forward to something good from that.
But 40yrs after you made your debut as an artiste, can you take us back a bit to your early beginning and what sparked your interest in music?
I was in school; I was in University of Ife studying drama and I know I did a lot of things that have to do with entertainment. I was into drama, I was into music, I sang with Nelly Uchendu (late). Music was not really a focus for me until I wrote that song ‘Oko mi Ye’ that became a mega hit because of that African theme. Even before people like Chaka Chaka, and late South African girl that was as well popular in Nigeria (Brenda Fassie), I started that African beat with ‘Oko mi Ye’. It was just a joke because I was just messing around with somebody on a piano and I came up with the song. Somebody heard the song and said “the song is fantastic you know you have to do something with it, you can’t just leave it. You can take it to EMI Records.” So, I took it to EMI the next thing a message came to my father’s house that my song came first at the panel. You know the whole thing started from there and smashed everywhere. That was it and I just said, “So, I’m a musician now, ok good, it’s all good,” and I continued from there.
You were in your teen when you started music. Was there any opposition to it, maybe from your parents or peers?
Yes, definitely. My dad wanted me to be a lawyer. And then he used to call me an orator. So, he felt that would be a good field for me because my father felt that I do good argument. But unfortunately like I said when the music came out and it was all over the place, I just said “ok bye, bye to law,” But I came back later to do an online course on law. But I was not focused because I was travelling all over the place taking my son around. So, I couldn’t really settle down and go through with it. But I did start the law programme just to please my father. But my father eventually died anyway.
You were known popularly during your reign as the ‘Samba Queen,’ How did that come about?
It was you people (the media) that gave me the name. I came out with a song called ‘Arigo Samba,’ and it was quite popular, people loved it and then from there the media just tagged me ‘Samba Queen,’ and that’s how the name came about.
Has there been any regret or event that gave you reason or cause to want to think otherwise taking up music?
No, not at all. Like you said, I was in my teenage age when I started. And I tell you a lot of things happened to me in my teenage age. As a teenager, so many things happened to me that I didn’t expect. Like I went on a lot of tour; I went to Oraton world Festival of Arts in Berlin through University of Lagos Drama department. I travelled extensively. We went to Bourne, Sabricane, Frankfurt, West Berlin, it was an extensive tour. And then we went to Switzerland and then we went to Netherlands. It was a first eye opening break for me to know that a teenage girl like me could go and represent Nigeria. Though it was through a drama presentation, eventually after that tour another tour came up. Several other tours came up. We went to Yamoussoukro in Abidjan to represent University of Lagos (Unilag) at the All University Games; we went to sing the Nigerian national anthem; that was another eye opening tour. It was fantastic and then I came back and we went on another tour to the Caribbean. Late Tony Momoh was leading the delegation with General Yakubu Gowon and his wife. Senator Chris Anyanwu was on that tour. It was something else and you know I was still young; I mean I was still in my 20s when that came up, we went to Caribbean from there they took us to New York. One of the ambassadors from Nigeria welcomed us in New York. The next day in Caribbean I was tagged “Bombshell from Nigeria”. It was a good thing because General Gowon was proud of me because I came and I had this line up of band behind me; all the henchmen like Phil Onyia was playing the horn for me; Peter King was on the saxophone; Lagbaja was on bass, late Willie Bestman was on drum; Remy Kabaka too was on drum a whole lot of them. All these big men were just behind a tiny me and we did so well in Caribbean because everybody came from all over the world. It was the 150th anniversary of slave trade in diaspora. I was the only band. I have done so much for Nigeria and everything happened in my early life. I tell you the truth, the reason I don’t really have many albums to my name was because national work kept falling on my laps. I was there at the 30th anniversary of corporate world in Abuja; I was on the band stand when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was formed; I was the one who played at the opening of the EFCC. Then I branched into human rights with late Gani Fawehinmi, late Enahoro, late Beko, Mrs. Odumakin, we were all always on the road doing all kinds of human rights thing; we did road shows, that part of my life too came up. Then I went to work for a Foundation where we were serving food in school. So many things also distracted me from my career. But I know a lot of people don’t know all these things. While all my colleagues were enjoying fame, money and making money, I was busy working for Nigeria.
That would have been an interesting experience, not something somebody can buy with money?
Not, I didn’t make money from it but I enjoyed every minute of all those things that I did because it was for my country and I was really, really satisfied.
A lot of girls are now into music. How different was this during your time?
In our own time, I don’t think girls were even going into music right now. There are not many girls today. Like in our era a lot of girls came up - Uche Ibeto, Funmi Adams, Christy Essien, Onyeka Onwenu, Stella yama - name it. There were a lot of people in our era. And of course, you know the reason is different now. Today, it is always about beat and sex. In our own time, its content you know its serious content. You are either singing love songs or you are singing songs to correct the ills in the society. So, it’s a bit different from what they are doing now and not a lot of girls. Yes, of course people demand for sex from women when they want to do things for you. But in this era it’s even worse. They are not even allowing them to surface. You can see its only Yemi Alade, Simi and Tiwa that have only been able to bring their heads from the water. Okay, there is Ayra Starr, which I think is very talented. She’s going to go places. There’s also Teni. These girls are great talents, they are really, really talented. But the girls are not coming up enough. I don’t know but that’s how I feel.
What do you think can be done to encourage more girls to take to music?
We were lucky we had record companies that were rooted. You can just go to the record company. But in this case, have to go to individuals to produce who knows all kinds of harassment they will be getting. So, that could be part of it. And these girls are stronger than us in our era. When I mean stronger, they are able to put their foot down than when we were coming up. I’m not saying we were not tough too, we were tough. But this era, these girls are exposed, they are wise, they are strong and they are better placed. Some of them have done a lot for their lives before coming into music. I just hope that they get better and that they come up more. I hope the producers will help them come up more and don’t harass them so that they can be free to come up. I know we have a lot of talent. I just pray that things get better for the women.
At some point, some of your contemporaries stopped recording and left the scene. Some went abroad, some into oblivion. Why did that happen?
It got to that point in Nigeria where the record companies started folding; EMI folded, sold it to a Nigerian company who didn’t really do well with it. Premier too went through the same thing; they folded when all the white people left these companies. And then don’t forget the pirates didn’t really help matters. Pirates really worried us in our time. It’s not like now that people live on corporate endorsement and streaming. We didn’t have social media in our time. So, it was difficult. The Alaba boys were just feeding on our works and we never got money back. And the record companies they use all their monies to promote and never got money back. And then don’t forget corruption aspect of it, we were not