Gospel musician, Sola Allyson in this chat with Entertainer opens up on her collabo with singer, Adekunle Gold and her American tour among other interesting issues. Enjoy it.There has been appetite-whetting
promotion of a new song you said you were working on with Adekunle Gold.
When are you releasing it? Yes. It is in the final stage and would be out anytime from now. What’s the song about and what inspired it? The song (and title) is an adaptation of Alujanjankijan,
one of our ancient folk songs. It is used to help create awareness in
our society about creating more time for the children, not exclusively
leaving them at the mercy of caregivers, nannies, house helps and so on;
not giving up on them even when they seem “bad”, and urging parents to
be strong because parenting is not an easy task. As much as we need to
work and provide for them, we should try as much as possible not to
overlook the need of time and quality informal training which forms the
foundation and strength of a child’s (person’s) character. This collaboration with a secular musician, is it not taking you off gospel music for which you are known? I am a singer who uses my gift to spread
the ‘gospel’ to everybody, as Christ commanded us. He said, ‘go ye into
the world’. I have found the light, and I am letting it to shine that my
world would come to the truth of God’s word through all that I do, my
life as my primary tool, my music as my professional tool. Choosing to collaborate with Adekunle
Gold does not take me away from who I am or what I’m chosen to do. I
decided to work with him because of the similarities in our style,
compositional techniques and delivery, doing away with vulgarities and
being soothing and encouraging with our words. This classification of
whether a musician is secular or gospel, in my own view, is only a way
to look down on others and be prideful about salvation. Ultimately, it
is the content of your life that determines you, not the content of your
songs that could be ‘wisely’ and cunningly put together, for commercial
reasons, to arouse the emotions of people into classifying you as a
gospel musician. However, we must be able to always
refresh our minds with Christ’s words of taking the gospel to all the
world, not to some people or a particular segment of our world. Light
cannot be useful inside light, if indeed we are sure we carry light, it
can only shine in darkness. What we need to look up for is the inner
strength, boldness and guidance to ‘go ye into the world and preach the
gospel!’ What’s been your experience working with Gold? I tell you, Adekunle Gold is a humble, amiable and cool-headed person. And he is clean, pure, I believe. Are we to expect more of such? Well, I go on in my journey being
sensitive to be helped in discerning what steps to take or not to. More
of such would be done if and when I receive the go-ahead to do so, not
only for commercial reasons which is not bad in itself, but for
‘purpose’ reasons. Before now, I had got many, many artistes
requesting for me to collaborate, but I didn’t get the inner release to
do that. Singing for me is much more than popularity and
sensationalism, it is life, purpose, calling, and before I get involved
in any project, I want to be sure I should be there. I want to be sure I
am on common grounds with the other person in terms of the message we
are passing to our world. You are billed to tour the United States of America this July, tell us about it. My US sojourn? As I see it, and put it,
it is a journey in the course of my destiny to explore, share my gift
and enjoy my Father’s world! What’s been the movement from Ibadan to Lagos done to your career as an entertainer? Relocating to Lagos, hmmm… My husband and
I relocated from Lagos to Ibadan after we got married, although I
studied at The Polytechnic Ibadan. We came back to Lagos in 2013, after
having battled the inward sensing for sometime, to return to Lagos. It
is not about Lagos or Abuja, it is about being sensitive about the
process of our own growth, and evolving into who and what exactly we
should be, the paths we should walk. It’s all about where destiny
designs us to be par time. You rose to limelight though the
love song ‘Eji Owuro’, which you did as sound track for Bimbo Oshin’s
movie of the same title. Many of your colleagues have crossed over to
Nollywood while sone actresses have turned singers. Don’t you have plans
to go into the movies? There are different designs and
orchestrations of our walks in life. What we need to do is to discover
and hold on to what exactly is the specific pattern of God for us. I am
not them, and they’re not me. We should be careful in boxing the
destinies of people in a particular way because they’re in similar
fields. It is my responsibility to know why I was bestowed with this
gift, what I am to do with it, to whom I am sent and how to use it. What’s the most shocking experience you had with a fan? None. My music does not evoke such experiences in people but rather soothing, soul-awakening and calming. Stage performance or royalties on records, which pays your bills? God pays my bills!! Not my efforts. Stage
performances, royalties, both are channels through which He pays my
bills. Apart from performance, I do consultancy, training and
counseling. The business of being a woman who nurtures my world, guiding
and helping the younger ones, of being a wife and mother… these are
full time businesses o! How do you balance your spiritual and music life as a celebrity? By setting priorities for myself, I am a
woman, wife, mother, before a celebrity, it’s like a scale of preference
thing. As much as I made up my mind and decided to be married and have
children, I must be responsible in my roles in these aspects. My family
comes first. Our children got to know mummy is a ‘star’ when they got
mature to understand it, when people are excited on seeing her! What’s your take on the hawking of nudity on most musical videos of Nigerian artistes, especially in the hip-hop genre? Of course, I am not for that, and it is not acceptable, no matter how we glamorise it and make it appear normal. You are still an extremely
beautiful and gorgeous woman, despite being married. Don’t men still
make passes at you and how do you handle them? Thank you for the compliment. Like I said
before, my music does not evoke such feelings in people. I do not sow
the seed of lust, so I do not reap such. I don’t abide in the proximity
of being lusted after in my thoughts, which my lyrics convey, in my
delivery and in my dressing. The men I meet appreciate me and ask for my
account details and put money to bless me! They always want to do
something to help me because they say my music is helpful to them. My
songs point to the truth of the living God, in all sense. I don’t
attract such. If such comes around me, it cannot take root let alone
thrive.
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