Allyson-Obaniyi:  I’m Grateful How Far I Have Come, I’m Fulfilled

Sola Allyson-Obaniyi, popularly known as Sola Allyson is a Nigerian singer and songwriter who came into limelight with the hit record, Eji Owuro, which was the soundtrack for a film with same title. After Eji Owuro, she has released several albums such as Gbeje F’ori, Ire, Im’oore amongst others. Apart from being a singer, she is also a voice coach, counsellor and a consultant. In this interview she talks about 20 years after her hit record, her unique sound, her defined style of musical delivery and more. Tosin Clegg brings the excerpts

This is 20 years after Eji Owuro, what has been the experience?

Eji Owuro was released on November 20, 2003.  It was originally a sound track of a film of the same title. Before then, I was already in the music industry for about 15 years. I have been a backup singer before they contracted me to do the sound track for Eji Owuro. I didn’t know what was going to happen but I made sure I put in my best into everything that I do. I am a thorough worker. If I want to do something, no matter how small or how much they pay me, I want to do it very well. I didn’t know it was going to become like that. Usually, sound tracks are not always very long, they are not as long as albums.  After the film was released, the executive producer, Mr. Ola Ibironke, said it would be good for the songs to stand on their own that the songs were too big to be left in a film. So, that was how I had to add to the songs to make them longer and we are here today 20 years after. I am getting ready my new work and it might not be an album, but can be an EP (extended play). But I’m sure it will still come out as the original me and be a blessing to souls.

What is next for Sola Allyson?

I don’t put myself under pressure. I just take every day as they come but you can be sure that the way you do anything is the way you do everything. I have found my soul’s path now. I am very sure of what I’m supposed to do. You can be sure that everything that I am going to do is going to be based on the same foundation that I laid, based on the same values, the dynamics might be a bit different but I’m still going to be this same Sola Allyson that you know. I sing in Yoruba predominantly. I am very African. I’m very Nigerian. I’m very Yoruba. I am a woman. I’m a wife. I’m a mother. Anything can change in some things but my value that I put will never change.

What big project are you working on?

There is no project that I have worked on that is not big. It was just because Eji Owuro was what introduced me to people because the music and the sound were different. It was fresh. With all sense all humility, there wasn’t any sound, any melodic structure like Eji Owuro before it came. There is nothing I have done that is not big. The reason is that Eji Owuro is the song that registered me in people’s heads and the time Eji Owuro came wasn’t the time of social media, it wasn’t a time when they were a lot of artistes on the scene like that. But I know that my place has always been my place. My position has always been my position. I did Adura Ololufe, and it’s quite popular too. I did Ife Adale, Iri Ayanmo – I sing as I’m inspired not that she sings love songs. I sing as it comes to me.

There is this ongoing debate of whether you are a secular or gospel artiste, how do we categorise you?

I have always been addressing it. I know I will address it forever and I will address it today again. Spirituality is not limited to religion. I am not a gospel singer; I am a singer. If you are looking for a classification, you can say I am a spiritual singer. I always say it that I am Sola Allyson and I am a singer. And it is because it is strange to the society that you can do music without being vulgar. That is why I said before I came that there wasn’t anybody at the risk of sounding arrogant, I am not sounding arrogant, I am just saying what is. Before I came, it is either you are gospel or you are secular. I’m a Christian but I know the spirit of Jesus that I know is spread all over. It is not limited to the church. That is my understanding. I am not saying I know it all. I’m still learning. But from what I know, I know that what I know is not very far from the truth. Jesus didn’t come for Christians alone. Christ came for the whole world. The Bible says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever – the world and whosoever- that is the perspective, that is my understanding of what being a Jesus person is. Jesus is not limited to the four walls of a church. I am from the Kingdom of the light to life’s marketplace. When people see me, they would say this Jesus that you believe, they would because of me want to do what Jesus says that we should do. I know you are being sounding modest calling it an ongoing debate but I am used to it. It doesn’t even bother me any longer. From places where people should send help to you or support you because they are saying you are not mentioning Jesus, Jesus didn’t say I should be mentioning his name like pure water. The name for me is a sacred name and anytime that I mention it, it answers for me. I won’t sing a song that I know is worldly inside my heart and I will put the name of Jesus so that the church can like me. I will not. And here I am today 20 years after I am still standing, 20 years to come, I will stand. I am saying this and I am making my boast in the Lord, I’m not saying it because I am sure of tomorrow though nobody is sure of tomorrow but I know God is faithful and full of mercy. I am doing what I am doing based on whom Jesus is, the essence of Jesus.

And then if you say I am doing gospel or secular, what does it matter? Does the bible talk about gospel music? The bible admonishes us to do spiritual songs and hymns. It is human classification so that we can say this one belongs here. Like the thing we used to make jest with before, I belong to nobody, I don’t belong to anybody. I just want to do my life the way Jesus did in human form when He was just a normal person that did things differently. That’s what I want to do. I don’t want to be like Jesus because I cannot die for the world but I am talking about the normal day to day thing before that other purpose. My own purpose is to share the knowledge of God’s light through the gift that I have. What matters to me are the souls of people that my music have touched, that my music transforms daily. That is what gives me the most joy.

Do you have plans to diversify into acting?

Over the years, I have got some scripts to act. This is what I stand for. If I know what I’m supposed to do in the film is compactible to what I am sent to do, I would do it. Of course, I will not open my breast and bum bum because I believe in the spirit of womanhood a lot. But I can do film.

 Are we going to see a collaboration or song in English?

I was a member of the central choir of the Celestial Church of Christ for many years. Cele would always be a home for me. I may not worship in Cele again actively but like I said, I believe in spirituality more than the four walls of any church. God is everywhere. I have built an altar and I take it everywhere I go. I have collaborated with Adekunle Gold because our modes of delivery are similar and the message I wanted to pass, he really fit into it that time. Adekunle Gold has evolved from that space now. Recently I collaborated with Sunmisola on a church song. When I see people whose messages are similar to my own, we can collaborate but I’m not going to collaborate with anybody for commercial reasons. I want to make money. I want money a lot of money but I am not going to collaborate with anybody just for commercial reasons. I will collaborate with people because of the understanding of my destiny, of my purpose. If I find anybody whose mode of delivery, message is very compatible with my own, why not? Many people have reached out to me to collaborate with them, but I know it is because they don’t understand where I stand. When I say no or that I am not available, I’m not saying your song is not good enough, what I am saying is that I am not seeing me in your calling and I am not seeing you in my journey.

Would we ever get to hear you sing in English?

I doubt it. Many young people are under pressure because you need to sound a particular way, you need to put English, do this or do that. Everybody has a segment of the industry where they have been sent to. Nobody is sent to everybody. The whole world doesn’t listen to anybody. It is not the whole world that listens to one person. There are some people that your work will never reach but I have found the people I am sent to and I am okay. As long as my music does the work of minds, hearts and soul transformation in you, I’m fine. Sunmisola is much younger than me but her expression, presence, the carriage, what she is trying to do is very similar to what I am trying to do but in a Gen-Z way.

At this point in time, are you where you are supposed to be in your career?

I’m where I want to be and I am grateful. Life is lived each day. I’m grateful that so far that I have come, I am fulfilled. That is why when I meet people and they tell me your music has done this to me, I get emotional.  I have told them publicly that when you see me, just say Sola or Madam Sola or Aunty Sola good afternoon and just go away because if you stand to tell me that my music did this or that to you, I will be emotional. I will be teary. I am trying to fight back tears now because I have had feedbacks of what my music has done to people. It was even that that made me take it more seriously. I wanted to just express myself because I studied it and I have the gift. But when I started seeing the effect of what I do on the souls of people, God used that to open my eyes to how serious my calling is. I have always been a serious person but I became more serious. Everybody has to know themselves.  I am not an entertainer; I am in the entertainment industry. If you come to my concert or an event I am performing, you will be entertained but that is not the major reason. Where I am going is very far but I am grateful for where I am now and I am sure this is the evolution. I will evolve till I die. Of course, I would be in my 90s.

What does it take to sound the way you sound?

The texture of my voice is my natural magic. I just open my mouth and sing. I sound like that and I embraced it. I met somebody who helped me to embrace it. I have always sounded like this. I began singing in Islamic school then the C& S church, then Cherubim and Seraphim church, then Celestial church. Since I was little, I have always been a star. It is either I am doing cultural dance or when we are singing at Islamic school, it is my voice that would be going up. I have always been ‘that Girl’. In school, I was the girl that would always score first. I was an A student. I was the head girl in my primary school. I have always been that girl that people knew but it was when I got to Cele and met Baba Adetiran, that he made me know technically what I have. Before I met Baba, I wanted to either do English or Law. My dad wanted me to be a lawyer. One of my teachers used to call me lawyer kekere when I was at Shamshedeen Grammar School, Ikorodu. It was when I met Baba that I changed my mind. When I met baba, I was a confidential secretary in a company. I didn’t even know people could go to school to go and study music. It was when I met Baba that my eyes opened to the fact that I could go and study music. You understand how scholarly people think but this is my journey that I am walking. If I wasn’t a singer, I would have been a lawyer and I would have been a very good one or a lecturer.