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| Anne |
Anne
Inyang has continued to wax strong in her career. In this interview with ADA
DIKE, the Aka’anam nkwe crooner takes
us down the memory lane and reveals how she conquered life’s challenges to get
to the top of her career.
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She
has a 13-man band known as Saints Music Band. Initially, Anne Inyang was a
banker by profession. The amiable singer studied Banking and Finance and worked
in an old generation bank for a while before she resigned her appointment when
it was getting too crowded to face music.
Her
journey into music started when she was a little girl, from the age of seven. “My
family members knew that I had traces of a musician. I would pick my comb and
play guitar. I would stand in front of a mirror and do some demonstrations.
When I sang, I had a terrible voice then; one of my aunts would tell me that I
would break all the glasses in the house. I was always doing one composition or
the other. My aunt would say, “It is a lie! You formed this one because it does
not exist.”
“Then,
I did not know that it was a gift until I started noticing that I just couldn’t
do without writing songs. I was always composing songs. At age 14, one of my
friends called Mabel encouraged me but I did not know whether it was positive
or negative because we used to put coins on a karaoke. It continued till one
day, the manager of a club noticed me and asked whether I had a band. I didn’t
think twice and I answered him yes. He asked me to come with my band the
following weekend. Four of us, all ladies quickly formed the band and called it
“G4”. The day we played in that club was the beginning of my professional
career. I was the lead singer. Sometimes,
I played drum. It continued until we started going to school, one of us
travelled abroad so I became a single man band. I later went into modelling and
school that took greater part of my time. I released my maiden album in 1996.”
Recently,
she held a concert for the release of her ninth album titled Awesome at Muson Centre, Lagos and gave
the proceeds to the less privileged as she always does.
“I
added some of my oldies into it because many people don’t know that I wrote
songs like ‘Things are Getting Better,’ ‘You are Worthy Lord,’ ‘God Cannot Lie
His Word Must Surely Come to Pass, ‘Winner’ and so on. I put them together in a
medley. These are songs God gave to me to minister to His people when He
arrested me. Other songs in the album are: ‘Open The Floodgate,’ ‘Kilo se mi’ a
Yoruba song, it is a story of a man who had no shoes, then he saw a man without
legs and began to appreciate God. I did collaboration with Chuks Chidube in
‘Yanfuyanfu.’ ‘Mumu Button’ a hip hop music is also an interesting song which
is advising the indolent to stop being lazy and press their idea button in
order to rule their world. There is a love song in it called ‘Ima Ima,’ which
means ‘My love.’ It is a wedding song but at the back of my mind, I am singing
it to appreciate God. It has Indian beat so its video will be shot in India.
There is a song for everyone in my new album.”
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| Anne |
She
frowns at how marketers handle her works saying. “I have issues with marketing
in Nigeria. I don’t have a good marketer so it is affecting the sales.
Secondly, I translated some of my songs to English, French, Yoruba and Igbo so
it is doing well all over the world.
“I am in the class of creating music
and others will copy from us. So we create music, others copy. A lot of people
have done my songs including Aka’anam
nkwe without seeking for approval from me. It is not fair.”
She
recalls the song that brought him to lime light: “The way I see life is, anything that happens to anyone is for a
song. God gave me Aka’anam nkwe song
as a consolation for my life and it came as a result of something I was passing
through at that time. The tract is a song about God’s love. It means, “I have
never seen this kind of love before.” I enumerated in that song the kind of
love God gives and the type of love the world gives. God’s love is
unconditional, incomparable and incomprehensive. That is why the song ends with
sai.
“Moreover,
I had heartbreak at that time. So it allowed the negative or should I call it
positive thing that happened to become a history. There is a glory behind any story. I did not
know that it would be a hit and such a song comes once in a century. Just like
“How great thou art.” I feel honoured
that God can give me a song that would become so acceptable worldwide. When I
go to countries in the world, before I would sing the song, they would tell me,
“Oh, we know it.” They pronounce it in
different styles and sing it in different ways.
“I have a serious challenge in marketing and promotions
of my albums which has cost me a lot of money. I appreciate what Copyright
Society of Nigeria (COSON) is doing in Nigeria to help musicians. Nigerian
artistes are suffering. Most of the vehicles and costumes they use in shooting
their videos are borrowed. I thank Yoruba people for patronising Yoruba artistes.
Some churches see gospel songs as a free gift. Yes, the gift is free but the wherewithal
to nurture the gift is expensive. It costs me a lot of money to produce my
albums and shoot my songs’ video that is why it has international standard and
are being shown in some cable channels. I didn’t have a sponsor for my album
launch. I don’t know why some telecommunications companies don’t like
sponsoring gospel albums.
“Piracy
has become endemic in music industry. They have infringed on my intellectual
property so much in this country. There was a time I was with some musicians,
and I kept repeating a word and later turned it to a song. It was surprised to listen
to a song someone that was with me that day recorded and added that idea I
created. I have learnt my lessons so it won’t happen again.“
The Akwa Ibom State born singer is the second child in a family of six
-four males and two females and they grew up in Lagos.
Her father died when they
were very little and her mother took up the responsibility of taking care of
them. Today, she has two degrees in Banking and Finance, and Secretarial
Administration and believes that one can surmount whatever challenge he or she wants
to surmount.
She
shows appreciation to God: “I thank God for using me to touch people’s lives
through music. Surprisingly, in January 2013, I was awarded the United Nations
Ambassador. I was really overwhelmed because I don’t know who nominated me. I
give God praise because it means that my work speaks for me. That is the 36th
awards I have received since I started my musical career in 1996. After that, I
have received another award.”
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