From mass communication student to winner West African Idols, Timi Dakolo tells Ada Igboanugo his next step forward- the All New Timi, his album and the story so far...
He sang, “This little light of mine...let it shine” and it certainly did in Timi Dakolo’s life as his winning the West African idols talent hunt show ignited the light which is still ever burning today. For someone who went through a lot before emerging into limelight, timi looked stunning when I caught up with him at the Bungalows clad in his well fitted black and red shirt and clean cut slacks with a lively persona and a crazy sense of humour.
Born in Ghana to Nigerian dad and Ghanaian mom, timi has been living with his grandmother since he was born in the south-southern state of bayelsa from where his father hails. As to why he wasn’t raised by his parents instead he explains saying it wasn’t expected, “it was like a mistake birth in which case both parents were young and weren’t capable of raising a child all on their own” he said but I guess right now it isn’t so much of a mistake, is it? Life wasn’t so easy for him under his grandmother’s nurturing as he mostly did menial jobs for the most part of his life but it certainly helped shaped him and made him what he is today. It’s no wonder he was torn apart by her death.
Timi had his nursery and primary school education in bayelsa and later went ahead to study Mass Communication at the University of Portharcourt where he was hoping to be a TV presenter as he revealed his second love aside music is talking,” I love talking. I’m hoping to host my own inspirational show someday” he said cheerfully and won’t this be a diversion from his music thereby affecting it “no I won’t forget my music. I would be doing both. It’s possible for me to do both, I mean tyra banks host her own TV show and she models as well” he added matter-of-factly.
His emergence into the West African idols was like a turning point for him but he said when he got to the audition site, he felt like taking a detour, “I looked at everyone present and I asked myself, ‘timi what are you doing here? What makes you think you can sing better than all these people?’” he said but it’s a good thing he didn’t if not he wouldn’t be winner today. It was in the course of the competition, at the top 24 stage that timi learnt about his grandma’s death but initially thought they were playing an expensive joke on him, “I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was a joke” he muttered but didn’t this affect him in the competition being the only one he was ever close to? “It definitely tore me apart but I was strong. I was a strong man through and through though most of my songs were sad song as they were all written out of influence of her death” and with that timi soared on to emerge as winner in the first season of the competition. With his confidence, vocal and love from the female folks especially the female judge you would think he had nothing to worry about but on the contrary timi had his fears as he felt intimidated by a contestant, “yes, Jodi. She had a beautiful vocal and at some point I thought I couldn’t stand a chance”.
Growing up with a genre of music such as reggae, one would expect timi to tow that line in his music career but his love for r ’n’ b seemed to have preceded that,”I love slow and sad songs. I feel it’s speaks more to a person than any other” but with the harshness of the Nigerian music industry and the fact that majority of its listeners prefer a party song to a slow one, how does he expect to cope? “Majority of the people who buy your cd are university students. That goes on to say that these set of people who buy your album are educated. The party songs will be there but at some point you want to sit down, relax and listen to a cool music that will help you divert your attention from the troubles around you. Songs like that of Asa are doing just that and so I believe it won’t pose as a problem to me”. He said.
The controversy that surrounded his winning in which what was promised as his prize winning wasn’t actualized didn’t stop him from bringing forth his album. His album which he is working on independently with the help of Cobhams will be due in a month’s time and will officially be out in the first week of December but songs from it are already hitting waves in the society. The 11-track album has songs like ‘I love you’ and ‘heaven please’ and featured the likes of M.I, Jesse Jags and John of the West African idols.
Timi learned of his mother’s death at the age of twelve but still keeps in touch with his father and the rest of his family, “they later went ahead to get married when they got old enough to and had two other children” he said and whom he also talks to.
His greatest possession is his mind because in it he dreams and, “it doesn’t cost anything to dream. I could write a thousand and one songs in my mind and later put them into writing. Right now I’ve written so much I could actually release a second album right now” while the greatest love of his life is God and understandably so as he quoted verses from the bible most of the time.
Timi reveals that he is VMS (very much single) and when asked why this is so he says, “no matter what you do at one point in your life you’ll become very busy and right now I’m a very busy person and most ladies can’t cope with that. They are in a hurry for commitment but I prefer we start out as friends before anything serious can happen”
A die-hard arsenal fan, timi rants about his love for football and his thoughts towards the U-20 football match and doesn’t fail to show his disappointment in the exit of the Nigerian team but his idea of fun is sitting with friends playing PS3 with a bowl of beans and garri in clear sight.
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