Glamsquad Magazine April 2018

INTERVIEW
opposed to that but I don’t want us
to be limited to that. You have to be
more in their faces; it’s like you have
much to prove but we’re slaying it and
we’re killing it!
There is a lot of talk about sexual
harassment globally with the Harvey
Weinstein situation and all the abuse
going on. Coming from a culture
where, if we’re honest, there’s a lot
of abuse but we sweep it under the
carpet. I wonder if that’s a challenge
for you as a female artiste? Is there
a lot of sexual harassment in the
industry?
To be honest, I’ve never
experienced it. Well… to say I’ve never
experienced it would not be fair but
not in the way it happens abroad.
I’ve heard that in the movie industry,
these things tend to happen but I
don’t think I’ve been in that position
where someone has said to me: ‘If
you don’t sleep with me, I won’t play
your music.’ No. I wouldn’t want
to speak on somethiNow your third
album has been done. When can
the Omawumi fans expect the next
big thing?
I’ve started working actually and I
am so excited about it! I got home
(now), having left about 3a.m. I was
recording all morning (yawns) and I’m
excited about the new materials that
I’m bringing out. I don’t know what I’m
tagging it yet but I know it’s going to
be back-to-back this year.
What kind of sound are we
expecting?
It’s going to be great African music;
that’s all I can tell you. That’s it. Stories
about love, society, what you’re doing;
passing on that same language of
‘no be just to freelax’. There’s also one
or two things that, if you hear, you’re
going to be like (gasps!) - she sang
that? You know, as much as I am promorals,
I also have this side of me that
every once in a while... hey!
Comes out?
Yeah!
You recently got married and I
was very interested to find out that
you are technically married; you
“
It’s very rare
for you to make
music and not
sell sex and still
get attention.
INTERVIEW
got married years ago - registry
wedding. So, why the decision to
have your traditional wedding and
why now?
My husband is wired in a certain
way. He likes things to be done the
right way and I understand him. Initially,
we were together for a couple of years
and we had a daughter together. We
got married at the registry and we
had a son along the way as well. So
we’ve just been this sort of people not
under pressure to do what the society
expects us to do.
If that time were convenient for
us to do the traditional wedding, we
would have done it. I think we were
going to then but I got pregnant and
I just didn’t want to be the bride with
a big nose! So, I told him we need
to move this thing and then I lost my
grandma. When it was time for us
to do it, we were just like… “Mehn, I
have work to do oh! We don’t have
time to plan for the wedding. Shey,
we’re already married?” And we would
postpone it again and finally, I was just
like, you know what? We’re not doing
this anymore. Let’s just do it now and it
was beautiful.
I’ve never been the type to
celebrate things that concern me
loudly. I’m always guarded about
them; the people that I love, but it felt
good. To just be celebrated, wearing
beautiful dresses, smiling, paying the
money to avoid credit.
Speaking of not being one to put
things out there really, I’m sure there
are many people who, up until this
wedding, didn’t even know that you
were already married or know much
about your personal life. Are you a
mother of 3?
Two.
Okay. See, there’s so much
information out there that is
contradictory. It’s hard to know what
is true. So, my first question on this
is: how have you managed to keep
your private life private?
I’ve not made an effort to. It’s not
like I set out to say I want to be private.
I guess, it has much more to do with
the kind of person that I am. If you
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