Where Is Olamide’s YBNL Princess?

Olomi ni, e ma je o lo, e ma je o jabole o
That’s my baby, that’s my love, e ma je o jabole o
Around the start of every year, it is customary
of writers in the entertainment niche to
publish lists of music talents to watch out for
in that year. For the year 2017, most of them
agreed on the choice of Temmie Ovwasa, to
grow from being a newbie in the industry to
new heights of stardom. But as we approach
the middle of the year, we are yet to see the
manifestation of the YBNL first lady.
Recall that the moment Olamide announced
her signing to the world in April 2016,
Temmie Ovwasa was immediately placed in
the focus of the music-loving audience in
Nigeria. Her introduction to the industry was
met with frenzy, the news of her signing to
YBNL and the inspiring story behind it,
spread like loose gas. In an instant, she
became the darling of the media. With the
splash of her photos on spaces in the media
that cannot be ignored and the numerous
interviews she granted, she won for herself,
her first set of fans. The speed at which she
achieved all of these was unbelievable. In fact,
I can hardly point out any other artiste that
had such early impact in the industry of late,
because even without a debut single, without
participating in a talent show, Temmie
Ovwasa could already boast of good
followership.
In all of these early successes, something
worked for Temmie, she had an alluring
artistic trait, a feature that is necessary in
becoming successful in the very competitive
and dynamic Nigerian music industry of
today. She also enjoyed the tremendous
goodwill of YBNL, as interest in her had
gathered even before her appearance on the
scene, thanks to Olamide. Before her signing,
the YBNL boss had blown the air of suspense
around his many music lovers. He had
tweeted about his search for a female artiste
to sign to his label; going as far as mentioning
his preferred specification. On Jan 17, 2016,
Olamide tweeted that, “ my YBNL First Lady should
be a combination of Asa and Dej Loaf… What do you
suggest? #YBNL1StLADY. “ This tweet threw the
Nigerian entertainment community into wild
excitement. Whoever was going to take the job
already had huge expectations to meet. She
had to blend the artistic depth of Asa with the
hoyden nature of Dej Loaf. So the moment
Temmie Ovwasa was handpicked for the job,
conjecture among fans was evoked.
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One could say that introduction of the YBNL
first lady to the industry was near perfect and
all she had to do from there, was to ride on
the momentum. It was as though, she had the
path prepared for her to follow the same
success route as fellow YBNL signee Adekunle
Gold and ex-signee, Lil Kesh had done. While
a lot of fans fell in love with Temi Ovwasa at
first sight, the media carried her like the
golden egg. So even before she was ready to
serve her debut single, a lot of plates were
already put forward. Finally when the song,
Jabole was released, it quickly reached the
high-mark of downloads.
She went on to whet the appetite of fans,
when she revealed in an interview with Punch
later in July that year that she had written
about 300 yet to be recorded songs. This
teaser was followed by the release of her
song, Afefe , a song that confirmed her lyrical
dexterity and projected her as a beautiful
songstress; these same traits have
distinguished the paragon, Asa, over the
years. So for Olamide, he must have felt
justified at the point of the song’s release, and
the young songstress would have considered
2016 a fulfilling year.
A lot of fans would have hoped that in 2017,
the YBNL first lady would shoot herself to
higher grounds in the industry, by recording
and releasing some of the hundreds of songs
that she had earlier boasted to have in
writing. We are five months into the year
already and nothing has been heard from the
‘next big thing’, not one single, not even a
featured song. While some of the other young
artistes tipped for big things earlier in the
year have begun to justify their inclusion in
the lists, and some others who did not make
the lists have begun to give writers a reason to
rethink, Temmie Ovwasa, literally the
unanimous choice of young star to watch in
2017, has simply been on hiatus. Her hiatus is
certainly not helping her claim to be the star
of 2017, and its impact on her career might be
perpetually pernicious, except of course she
hits the industry with a seismic impacting
song soon.
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But even if the plan is to wait till she records a
defectless song, the voracious nature of the
music audience means that they would not
wait for forever, especially when other
budding artistes like Ric Hassani, Wale
Turner, Terry Apala, have not stopped
thrilling.To fulfill the prophecy, Temmie
Ovwasa would have to be more consistent
with her musical releases and perhaps need to
broaden her scope to entertain fitting
collaborations, as she has good options within
the YBNL house, starting with Adekunle Gold
and a pool of options outside of the YBNL
team.
The music industry of today operates at a high
frequency and the general taste of the
audience is protean in nature. Like start-up
companies in a highly competitive industry,
young artistes cannot afford to slow down on
an early momentum, rather, they should build
on it, especially when the artiste rides on a
high intensity wave, like Temmie Ovwasa’s.
Perhaps when a niche is carved, and the voice
is distinct and recognizable, taking breaks can
prove to be a good strategy. It works for Asa,
Timi Dakolo, Darey, M.I, but Temmie Ovwasa
is nowhere near their realm, yet.
Conclusively, it is usually pleasing to see the
careers of artistes take flight, since many of
them have had to grind through years to make
it to the mainstream. But having to watch
artistes make it to the mainstream, only to fall
off without making a mark can be greatly
disappointing. The careers of such artistes are
usually reported with the view of ‘what could
have been.’ For some of those artistes, it
started with them struggling to connect with
their audience, and after continually failing at
musical attempts, and then they simply take
the backseat. While only few of them are
successful with their comebacks, most end up
in oblivion. I sincerely hope that the nascent
career of Temmie Ovwasa, the beautiful
guitarist that had earlier shown immense
promise, would not go down that road, but for
this to be avoided; she would need to be get
back to her task of making good music. This
way, she would not only be fulfilling her own
dreams, she would also be fulfilling the many
wishes of her fans, who would be expecting
her to rise and shine this year and perhaps
claim the Headies rookie award.

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