Again, he wants to get lovers on their feet

Highlife singer, Sunny Neji, is staking his voice on another wedding song even as he celebrates his birthday.

Away from the rosy world of concerts and endorsements, highlife singer, Sunny Neji, will sneak into Ibadan, Oyo State today to celebrate his birthday. Well, like many other Nigerians, he is not eager to reveal how many years he is marking.

Not even an Orunmila, the god of all knowledge, can decipher the truth and nothing but the truth when Neji, who struck limelight about a decase ago, on the platter of his song, Mr. Fantastic, jovially replies to the how-old-are-you query, “I am old enough to have a wife. I am old enough to be a father.” Perhaps, he hopes to play for an age-grade soccer team later; so, he will not want to mention an age he will not be able to doctor later.

Joking apart, Neji is celebrating the birthday with underprivileged kids at the Winning Castle Orphanage in Ibadan, which he describes as his favourite charity organisation.

“I went to the orphanage some years ago to see the children,” he says. I got endeared to the place. So, I go there every now and then to sing and dance with them and offer my little support.”

Beyond the seasonal temporary break, the artiste, who reclaimed the scene some five years ago with Oruka, a wedding song, recently released a single titled Sibo. He defines the term as his own coinage that suggests ‘Take it easy. Let’s be friends that we ought to be.’ According to him, the fact that mutual spirit of friendliness is disappearing from our society should give everyone concern.

“I am saying, ‘Let’s take it easy with each other. We are beginning not to appreciate each other as human beings again. If I don’t need you today, I may need you tomorrow and vice versa. There is need for our old communal life to come back,” he explains.

He is also concluding work on another single titled, Finally, which he describes as another wedding song. The audio is ready, while work is going on on the video. But he is taking his time before putting the audio on air as he wants Sibo to roll a little more.

But why is he cooking what he calls another ‘wedding-like’ song? He notes, “After Oruka, people have been asking me to do something else on the same subject. Some have said that I should remix Oruka. But I feel that even if I would do that I want to do another wedding banger.”

When he released another album called Timeless a few years ago, he came up with the ideology that he would not sell the album less down N1,000 a copy. He says the strategy worked as he was able to attract core fans that could afford the amount and who had also desired the special packaging of the piece. But he adds that while he broke even on the album, a marketer later got him convinced on the need to also do the N100 edition. The most important issue, he stresses, is that the music industry in Nigeria is changing so fast that no stakeholder can stick to one policy or strategy for too long.

“We discovered that physical distribution is no more the best way to go. The first strategy now is that we will not rush to release albums any more. We will be doing singles for now. After a long time, we will now release an album. That is when we see that the time is right for it. You know, everyday, we are learning. We do not have an industry with solid structures that support distribution of albums,” Neji adds.

Another strategy he is romancing with is digital distribution which, he says, will comparatively clip pirates’ wings.

 writes AKEEM LASISI.