“I Influenced Tiwa Savage And Seyi Shay” – May7ven

               

May7ven is the daughter of Nigerian ex international, Segun Odegbami. The UK based pop diva was recently in Nigeria to promote her newly released song, ‘What Ya Feeling’ which was produced by Ty Mix. She gladly spoke on her relationship with Tiwa Savage, and other female acts.

You made an entry into music a few years back, and then you went away, and now you are back, what have you brought back?

You left a lot out, I didn’t just make an entry and leave, I made an entry, then I came back, went on tours, then I left and came back again (smiles). I don’t live in Nigeria, and I made a conscious effort that I wasn’t going to stay here at that point, because I see the bigger picture than just putting out music here, being local and not doing anything outside Nigeria. So, while some people decided to stay here, I felt someone had to keep flying the Nigerian flag in the UK and now you can see the proof that we are getting played on daytime radio in the UK, people like myself, D’banj, Fuse ODG and Wizkid all get daytime airplay on London ra­dio stations. It’s a bigger agenda than just be­ing a Nigerian artiste resident in UK. I have a team, PR company and booking agent in UK, my foot is firm on ground in UK and that’s what I intend to replicate here in Nigeria. The reason I’m back here is because I’ve done what I can in UK, they know me there, they know the music, now is the time to show the Nigeri­an community what I can do as well.

You recently dropped a new song, let’s talk about it?

Yea, I dropped a song called ‘what ya Feeling’ produced by a Nigerian producer Ty Mix. We recorded the song in April. With this song, I want to hit people soft, and not come out hard straight away, I just decided to bring out a melodic side of me with this song, and it’s been well received so far, no negative comments.

Going forward, what should we expect from you?

The next song would be ‘Work’ with a banging video as well. It’s a huge dance track and the singing is pretty awesome too.

Since you’ve been away, a lot of new female acts have taken over, so why would I want to, listen to your songs?

My songs doesn’t sound like any other song you’ve heard in the Nigerian market, apart from my vocals being unique, my style is very different too, I tend to do music that’s 3 years ahead of his time, all my songs from 3 years ago are still relevant today. My new songs now are futuristic too. I don’t want to look or sound like any other female artists and that why my hair is ‘White’, I don’t dress like anyone of them, so by just meeting me, you’ll already see the uniqueness and when you dig in you’ll be more impressed.

Do you feel threatened by any of the female artistes on ground now?

Not necessarily, because in other for survival there has to be many of us involved, I never see it as a competition, I know when I started, I know why a lot of females are now here. The likes of Seyi Shay and Tiwa Savage were all with me in London when I did ‘Bo Aso Lara mi’, so I influenced majority of them to be doing what they are doing now. There always has to be a leader, someone who starts and creates things, and that’s how I see myself al­ready. So the style I’m doing now, I guarantee you in another two years you’ll find another set of Tiwa Savage doing what I’m doing. I’ve always been an innovator and you can inter­view any of them, they’ll tell you the same thing. So they maybe threatened that I’m around and not the other way round..

You said you once managed Tiwa savage?

Yea, we grew up together. She was in my younger sister’s class, I’m a year older than both of them and there was this competition we were part I was 12 years old at the time, and I managed the group and sang with them as well, we were five girls in the group and we came out joint winners with a male group. I managed the group till we were about 16. I have everything on film and one day I’ll pos­sibly leak the videos (laughs), but I remem­ber Tiwa was always singing, out of all of us, she sang the most while I was more focused on singing and dancing at the same time, she’s always been passionate about music.

How would you describe your relationship with her now?

We still talk; when I’m in town I call her, when she’s in London they come to see me. We are not tight as in calling ourselves every day, the music business we are in doesn’t allow us to do that, but we are still cool, I’m her older sister..

At what point did you know music is what you’ll do?

I’ve always known from when I was 3years old, I was always singing along to all the school plays, and I always wanted to dance desperately. When I was 8 years old, it became apparent that I have musical genes in me, I played drums in my church everySunday, and I just kept at it till I was about 15 years old. From 15, Tiwa and I started doing back up for var­ious artistes; we toured with Mary J Blige, Blu Cantrel. And then Tiwa left the UK to study in the states but I stayed back in the UK and I started speaking with record companies about getting signed, and they gave me a task to write three songs. At that time I had meeting with Virgin records and E.M.I who were all interested in me, they thought I was an awesome artiste and the saw the potential in me. Along the line, I got a job and started saving up so I could shoot a video of myself, and at that time, my only ambition and dream was to get my video on MTV, so I called up my cousin who at that time had not shot any video before. I told him my concept and we shot my first video ‘Hands up’. When we shot the video, the next thing was to get it on TV, so I just submitted it random­ly to a number of TV stations without knowing anyone, and luckily for me the first station to play it was MTV, I was blown away, I couldn’t believe it. Then I came to Nigeria and met with Denrele, he took me to Soundcity to do the Star host and a couple of other interviews, and it just grew from there. I won several awards, went on tour with P square, 2face, D’banj and other. My follow up single ‘Bo Aso Lara Mi’ was a huge success too, and I remember there were no female singers then just rappers, the likes of Sasha and Weird Mc. So I kind of got compla­cent and decided to go back to London because I was the only one doing the sexy stuffs and all. It was when I went to back to London that Tiwa came to see me in UK, she spent two days and said she wanted to go back to writing music, and we prayed about it, Seyi shay also came to me and I linked them up, I didn’t know they were going to come straight way and take over the scene (laughs).

Now would you say you have what it takes to claim top spot again?

Well, that depends on your perception of top spot, if you talk about talent and the acceptance of the people. For me, if it’s based on talent, I already have the top spot because I know I’m multitalented, and there’s nothing any of them is doing that I cannot do, but if talk about popu­larity, it means I need to be on ground, and that’s what I’m doing, back in the UK not one of them, not even Tiwa gets any airtime on the TV or Ra­dio, she’s going to have to work her butt off to get it, just like I’m working my butt off to get a mention on radio here (smiles).

Going forward, what should we expect from you?

The next song would be ‘Work’ with a banging video as well. It’s a huge dance track and the singing is pretty awesome too.

Since you’ve been away, a lot of new female acts have taken over, so why would I want to, listen to your songs?

My songs doesn’t sound like any other song you’ve heard in the Nigerian market, apart from my vocals being unique, my style is very different too, I tend to do music that’s 3 years ahead of his time, all my songs from 3 years ago are still relevant today. My new songs now are futuristic too. I don’t want to look or sound like any other female artists and that why my hair is ‘White’, I don’t dress like anyone of them, so by just meeting me, you’ll already see the uniqueness and when you dig in you’ll be more impressed.

How would you describe your relationship with her now?

We still talk; when I’m in town I call her, when she’s in London they come to see me. We are not tight as in calling ourselves every day, the music business we are in doesn’t allow us to do that, but we are still cool, I’m her older sister..

Did you ever consider playing football?

For me music has always been number one, and my dad didn’t really push me to play football.

Did your dad support you to do music?

Not at all, not until he saw my second video. He was more about staying in school. And luckily for me he was in Nigeria and couldn’t control what I was doing in UK because I’m very rebellious. My mum on the other hand saw so much potential that she couldn’t even stop me. And really, my teen was quite problematic, I went through so much pain and trouble, I was assaulted and beaten up in the UK, so my parents expected me to be in Jail, Dead or pregnant, those were the three things I was destined to do, but I had a lot to prove to myself and my family. When my dad saw the video for ‘bo aso lara mi’, he became my biggest fan, and he’s been ever since