By Beautiful Nubia
First, let’s get this straight: the official title of this song is How D’You Do? (Owuro L’ojo). And you will understand why this little detail is important when I tell you the story of how the song came to be.
It began with a request from a Radio friend. After the release of our first album in 1997, I quickly made friends with folks in the Media, especially at radio stations. We knew we needed them to help us play the music and expose it on air to the people. This intense promo effort went in every direction: newspapers and magazines, Radio and TV stations. We left no stone unturned. It took a lot of time, energy and money.
However, beyond the business angle, some of those guys in the Media actually became friends. And we’d sometimes hang out just for fun at their respective stations. One day in 2001 at Radio Lagos/EkoFM, one of these Radio friends told me the station was looking for theme songs, or what they called signature tunes, for a new early morning show that was about to launch.
They needed 2 songs – one in English and another in Yoruba. He wondered if I’d be able to do this for the station. As I explained in Book of Songs (our compendium of songs), I prefer when songs come to me naturally, organically. That’s how I’ve written most of my songs. They come to me and I write them down. I don’t go looking for them. I do not like being asked to “write on demand”, it’s too much work! But then, I also like a good challenge.
So I went home, shut my doors, turned on the creative taps, and, after several days, I had the songs ready. The first, written in English I titled “How D’You Do?”. It went:
Good morning sweet Lagos
How do you do?
Good morning sweet Lagos
We’ve got some work to do, etc.
The second composition which I named “Owuro L’ojo” went:
Ojumo ti mo, ara mi e gbe’ra ni le
Ise ti ya…
Owuro l’ojo eni ma ri’re o, etc.
Two separate songs addressing the dawning of a new day, new beginnings, new opportunities, a fresh start. I liked them both instantly and confidently presented them to the crew at Radio Lagos/EkoFM. I actually recorded acoustic versions of both songs for them in their studio with just my guitar. I was not paid a dime, we never discussed payment. I just did it for the joy of it. I have no idea if they ever used those recordings. I definitely never heard them on air myself, though, to be honest, I rarely listen to radio.
In late 2001, as I began to get materials ready for the Jangbalajugbu album, I decided to change a few words and merge the 2 songs seamlessly. Once I composed the bassline and horns, it was easy to arrange the rest of the instrumentation and make them sound like one song. And then, of course, I merged the titles into one as well.
“How D’You Do? (Owuro L’ojo)” was the first song we recorded of all the 13 on the Jangbalajugbu album, and I decided very early that it would also be the first track on the album. It had a certain ethereal quality to it, especially that languid intro acoustic guitar that immediately calms and arrests you. (Interesting fact: that acoustic guitar mimics the shekere).
I felt instinctively that the people would love the song. And I think I was right.