My mum encouraged me to do love songs —Simi

Songstresses, Simisola Ogunleye popularly known as Simi, has revealed how her mother encouraged her to do love songs.

The X3M Music first lady, who started as a gospel singer, told Saturday Tribune in an interview that her mum was played a role in her switch from gospel to love songs.

The ‘Love Don’t Care’ crooner said that though gospel songs drew her to music, she grew professionally as a singer, songwriter and composer when she heeded her mother’s advice to venture into love songs.

She said, “After hearing my songs, she would sometimes say, ‘You know, it wouldn’t be bad if you did a love song once in a while’. And after sometime, I began to give it a thought. I did “Tiff,” that was the first secular song. After ‘Tiff’ I began to see music more as an art, not as a ministry.

“As I grew, music became a part of me. I got signed to another record label. My current label worked me through the dynamics of Nigerian music. I was able to artistically define myself. That was when I started doing good music. I got better in writing and singing. I even started learning sound engineering”.

Simi, who admitted having a body of unreleased gospel songs she considers artistically inchoate, described her genre of music as chiefly Afro Soul.

Speaking, she said, “I started singing professionally in 2006 as a gospel singer. My first album, ‘Oga Ju’ was produced by Samklef. But I was really happy I didn’t release that album because those songs were not really good. After ‘Tiff’ in 2014, I felt like I was more mature in the industry than in time past.”