One Love
Odolaye Aremu
Odolaye Aremu
In the 80s, the Nigerian music scene was littered with female pop stars. Many beautiful girls doing their own things.
I remember Uche Ibeto, Nelly Uchendu, Martha Ulaeto, Christy Essien-Igbokwe, Veno, Funmi Adams, Tina Onwudiwe and a few others.
Don’t forget that my crush Theodora Ifudu and the Lijadu Sisters were the part-time rave of the 70s.
Onyeka, for some unexplainable reasons led the pack in the 80s. And I think I know why. She was simply an enigma who sang beautifully but also found a way to court her stardom without offending her privacy. She was a masterful ambivert whose private life never really crossed into her public business.
Book smart, music smart, and beautiful. In short, her artistry was an ebullient catalogue. There can never be another Onyeka. Never! She was Onyeka Onwenu, but her fans and Nigerians alike related to her on a first name basis. But what we think we know about Onyeka is practically nothing. And to really think about it – I have never really come across another Onyeka!
Her baby afro with that speck of gray at the front – her signature look for the longest time, encouraged women dealing with canities. That’s how well she lived within her skin. When all of a sudden every act started changing color like butterflies. Onyeka remained beautiful under her natural skin. She wasn’t just a singer, she was more like a total package. And music was only a spare vehicle to push her other ambitions through. She partnered with Mariam Babangida on the VVF issues prevailing on the Northern region in the late 80s-90. Her musical duet with KSA on safe sex and early pregnancy was another WHO initiative.
She will always be remembered as a classy, smart, gifted, beautiful and talented Nigerian whose business in her lifetime was her business. And it is amazing that she looked her best to the end! Bittersweet that her legacy is safe, but that husky voice is forever gone!
Onyeka o, ìyàwó wa o dìgbà. Iya Tijani, Iya Ibrahim o dàrìnnàkò. O dojú àlá! Sing hard in heaven! Let them know how beloved you were here on earth that you literally dropped the mic on stage, doing what you loved doing best!
Pic courtesy of Spotify Africa