To look like a big girl I wore breast pads— Anne Inyang

Written by Sam Eyoboka

Saturday, 09 May 2009

PRINCESS Anne Inyang is one of the few skillful songwriters, composer and anointed singer/musicians Nigeria has ever produced. She studied banking and finance but because of her passion for touching lives through her inspiring songs, she quit banking in 1998 and went into full time professional music. Not many people know that Princess Inyang, the pretty gospel artiste who shot into limelight with her hit song, Akanam Nkwe, (unconditional love) hawked oranges as a child to support her widowed mum. The down-to-earth artiste, whose success story would inspire many frustrated youths, did not attend a conventional secondary school either. She did correspondence courses and came out in flying colours. You can’t forget in a hurry her debut album. All the way with Jesus, which contained the instant hit, ‘Akanam Nkwe’ We ran into her recently in Warri, where she ministered for four days at the Daughters of Sarah annual convention at the Word of Life Bible Church, Ajamimogha, Warri, Delta State. The conversation that ensued is presented below... Background “My name is Anne Inyang from Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria. My father was an Apostolic Church pastor. I’m the third child in a family of six and I became born again in my teens. My mum is very much around and lives in Lagos State, Nigeria. A very simple and God fearing mother, she single handedly trained us, because our dad died very early. I studied secretarial administration at Yaba College of Technology and I started working very early in life. In the beginning, I was doing all sorts of jobs to be able to support my mother and my siblings. Eventually, I got a job in the bank. There, I was employed as a secretary but was absorbed into real banking which made me do part time banking studies at the Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech). But I’ve been into music all the time. Were you born a musician? Does it run in the family? Or is it something you imbibed while you were growing up or because of your experience? Which of them? PRINCESS Anne Inyang There has never been a musician in my family before, but it’s just that since I was a kid, everybody noticed that there was something musical about me. I really loved the male instrument. I loved playing the drum and the guitar. I will pick a comb and be playing it like guitar. I don’t know where I got that from because as I was growing up, we didn’t even have television set in the house. We watched television in our neighbour’s house. So I believe that there’s something God puts into every individual that is just peculiar to you. I loved to sing songs that never existed before. I never knew at that time it was a gift. I didn’t know it was a talent to be able to compose songs. And as a child of may be seven years, eight years, I was already writing songs. When my father died, I was between the age of 12-14 and I was into music professionally. I was going to clubs then. I wasn’t born again. I was singing in clubs, playing in clubs. We were four girls in those days and we were called A-4 and I was the lead vocalist. We had a drummer and a guitarist but sometimes, I’ll drum. We were doing very well until my colleagues went to school and left me alone. Along the line, I gave my life to Christ in a very dramatic way. When did you become born again and how did you become born again? Mine is an unusual experience. It was like what happened to Paul the apostle. That’s the kind of experience I had. I had gone to the club on the 31st night to sing and in the company of my big cousin. I was a very small girl then and didn’t have very developed breasts. I used to wear padded brasiers to be able to give the impression that I was a big girl. I also had cousins that took me out whenever they return from abroad. It was from being taken out that I happen to know about clubs. They’ll take us out and we’ll have a drink or two and go back home. On that 31st December, I came back from the club and sneaked into the house, because usually you are not allowed to go to the club. I was staying with my uncle then at Ikoyi. I sneaked into my room, slept and didn’t wake until 72 hours later. I had a fantastic encounter that I never knew happened to people of these generation. Jesus, came into my room, and spoke to me. The glory of his presence was so overwhelming I thought I was going to die. I begged Him to spare my life, that if He spared my life, I was going to serve Him. He showed me all the places that He’d take me and what He was going to use me to do. In my little girl’s mind, all these things were impossibilities because I asked how am I going to sing to such crowd. I woke up three days later and had to go look for a church to start worshiping. My family thought I ‘d died in my sleep. Eventually, I found myself at TREM, Bishop Mike Oknokwo’s church. That’s how I went there, at Gbagada, Lagos and since then I’ve been with them. When was that? It was in 1984. I grew up there and I stopped going to the club. I wasn’t singing initially because I didn’t understand the church style. I had to understudy the choir first, more like an apprentice to be able to know how to worship God in spirit and in truth. It’s rare for people who have just been converted to just suddenly join. You have to know the word and understand the new kingdom with new principle and the new style of living. I remained thus between 1984 and 1996, before I released my album. It took a while for me to do that. But I’ve since become the music director of the church and I have trained so many believers. What are those dirty things that Annette Inyang did when she was frequenting the clubs? Nothing. I was just addict to music. You may not understand it but it’s like a spirit. Music is a spirit really. In PRINCESS Anne Inyang those days, they used to have the Karaoke in the club. And there was this particular club in Lagos that you’ll drop a coin and music will come up. You could dance till day break. I just loved to dance, and I wasn’t a loose girl nor was I into men. I was a child with no developed breast who wore padded brasiers to make me look bigger than my size . I didn’t know anything about men because it wasn’t my fancy. My fancy was music. I was thoroughly attracted like you’ll get somethings attracted to light with no direction. I was just crazy about dancing. I could dance from evening till morning and my legs won’t hurt. Maybe that’s why I transferred the same aggression of singing and dancing into the kingdom. What of drinks, alcohol, drugs? I was not into drugs too, but I drank. I didn’t know what drugs meant. My friends introduced me to drinking. But the very first time I took alcohol, my head hit somewhere and things changed around me, I vowed never to drink alcohol again. But as I was getting more exposed to life, I found out, I could consume brandy to a level most men couldn’t and I’ll still walk well. And then I’d sing and dance. But I never did drugs. You rose to become the music director in TREM. What was your experience in TREM as a chorister? At first, I didn’t want to join the choir because I didn’t fancy it but here I was, in a very large choir and there were up to 350 people in the choir. Was the choir that big in 1984? It was big but not up to the number now. I didn’t become the music director until 1990 and I remained so till 1994. Like I said, over the years, I had to understudy the system to understand how to score church songs. I never went to a music school. The music school I ever did was to train my voice. I went for voice training and learnt how to play the piano. I didn’t know that if you give people the chance to do something, the inner ability will come out. My ears have gotten trained to music so much that I’ll be able to score songs, listen to them, teach them and the choir ’ll even sing it better than the original song. As soon as I took over the choir, I started grooming the illiterate women to sing and to perform in style on stage. We had older women like my mother’s elder sister but I was able to train them. Today, they are called Women of Praise. I have trained them in such a way that they sing contemporary and all genre of music. Of course there was also the main choir and the youth choir. They were all under my responsibility. I left the choir when I got the call to go into full time music. I was working in the bank when I had the call. I was earning good money, but when God beckoned, I had to abandon everything. Initially I was reluctant because I was scared, but God took control of my finances. God has His own ways of paying us, if only we obey. So that’s what happened that made me leave First bank. And that was two years after your breakthrough record Akanam Nkwe? Yes. I left in 1998.... What was the experience like when you left certainty for uncertainty? I left certainty for uncertainty, but there was a certainty in between it, and that was God. Because I said it’s you O! I’m holding onto your trouser now, you’re all that I know. At first, it wasn’t easy at all. I had a band and I was still working remember?. In those days they don’t gospel artistes. They will bring you out so that everybody will lay hands on you and begin to pray for you. But I thank God for those prayers because that’s what is opening doors for me now. I remember one particular incident, that I went with all my band members and we were thirteen then. I paid our transport to the place. It was a three-days program and when we finished ministering, not a dime was given to us, not even our transport. After our departure, the musicians held me insisting I must pay them. As we started growing in my career in ministry, I had to put somethings in place. Now I have a manager, I have a band leader, I have staff under. Therefore, before we go to any show or any programme, we negotiate well ahead. Some people criticise gospel artistes for charging money. feel that’s ignorance, because the people don’t understand that we buy from the same market as the secular artistes. We shoot video from the same market and it’s expensive. My last video cost almost N4 million for the production alone. We spent money. We go to the same companies to produce our CD’s. We go to the same studios to record our music and you pay. Back up singers will not tell you that because they are gospel artistes so they won’t charge you. Will they speak in tongues to buy something in the market? That’s why, we charge. I don’t have a Church where people pay tithes or give offering. This is our own ministry, this is my calling and I have people that I am older than in the ministry that are now pastors, even bishops. Although, I was ordained a pastor not to long ago, I’m not the sit down pastor. I will like to add that music is a very powerful tool for evangelism.You can forget a message, but you’ll never forget the music that you’ve heard. It stays in your mind as you’ll keep singing it over and over again. I’m so happy I’m in this ministry. And I’ve implored the pastors to recognise the ministry of the psalmist. They should recognise it. People are living the church now to go into secular music because the church is not appreciating them. People like us, if not that I had an encounter, there have been challenges in my life that almost would have shaken me. Are there any cause for regret? Yes, of course. There have been times that I became homeless, because I chose to obey God and sing for him. There was a time I was sleeping in church because my home was taken away from me by the bank. I couldn’t keep up the payment because I had borrowed money to do this music. As a matter of fact, it was after the release of Highly Favoured that I borrowed money. And the day of the launching, there was riot in Lagos, nobody ,stepped out. Meanwhile, I had borrowed money hoping that with the launching I’ll be able to pay back. Everything went down. The people that borrowed me money almost arrest me. To forestall trouble, I gave up my house as a collateral and it was eventually taken. I don’t want to talk about the people I approached that denied me. At that point, people turned their backs on me. That was the bad period of my life. I had to be thrown out of my home. That accounted for some period of years that I didn’t release any album. Infact, I got tired of gospel music because even in Nigeria, secular music was not doing well. So I was discouraged. Here you’re not appreciated. You write your songs, you go to studio to record it, you’re the marketer. You’re the one marketing it. Up till today, I don’t have a very good marketer. The marketer I had for Akanakwe pirated my work, used it and sang into his own album. But he was eventually caught. I was in South Africa when it happened but I was recalled back home to come and identify my works. They had printed hundreds of thousands of that CD, and it was my marketer. At that time. I’d not eaten any money from Akanakwe. I have not said I didn’t enjoyed that product. Talking about it being a monster hit, God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. God knew that He was going to use that song as a compensation for my life. He gave me that song as a compensation. Chinua Achebe wrote so many books, but the one that stood out till today is Things Fall Apart. So it was with Anne Inyang. Akanakwe stood out, not that the other books of Chinua Achebe are not good and not that other songs of Anne Inyang are not good, but this one was a monster hit. God had plans for me. Those challenges were stepping stone for greatness for me. I thank God that He allowed those challenges to come in. You know that music generally picked up a few years ago in Nigeria when MTV base opened, Channel O. Nigeria music went international, so some of us now have become international materials. They play my music on Channel O, One Cube and the MTV base. When I went to U.S. last year, my music was played being played on some of their network.. That’s why all things work together for good. And you’re getting royalties for all these? Yes, but Channel O doesn’t pay royalties. They will tell you to sign some papers, and when you sign that paper, it means no royalty. We have a collecting body in Nigeria now that collects royalties. So far, I can accidentally say that I’m one of the few that have enjoyed royalty for my music internationally so far. Will you therefore say that the comatose situation of the Nigerian music is reversing? It has reversed in Jesus name. It has reversed, not reversing. Even the gospel music too? Even in gospel music, yes. The only problem we face is, that those in authority don’t allow gospel music to be played except on Sundays. My question is, it’s a free world, play any music. We have a lot of Christians around, they want to hear the kind of music they like everyday of the week, so why leave till Sunday. The excuse is that if they play gospel, they’ll have to play Islamic songs too. Ehen? Is it not what people like that they take? By feeding people with all these rubbish songs on air, you’re feeding the people with nonsense. We have people with songs that can change the lives of people, songs that tells people you can make it, and you are not playing it everyday. No wonder you have armed robbers everywhere, no wonder people go into prostitution because what you’re educating people with is immoralities. So that’s my stand concerning that. That’s the same regret that Dr. Erasmus Akingbola, the owner of Inspiration FM, expressed not too long ago. He did say that he actually applied for a licence where 80 per cent content would be gospel music, but the Federal Government said they can’t allow such. Do you really think that any person going into gospel now will be fulfilled? Any person going into gospel music now should really be convinced that this is what God has called me to do. When I released my album first, I titled it “All the way with Jesus.” That means I’m going all the way, no matter the storm, or rain, I’m going all the way. So you have to have that at the back of your mind that there will be rough period, then will be good period, just go. I believe that, like they do abroad, if you want to do awards, you award people in categories. You award gospel, fuji and the rest. That’s why they have different genres of music. There are people who are junior to me in music in this country now that are more popular than me because radio stations only play them. That’s the way I feel about it. Who is Anne Inyang’s role model? Musically, my role model remains the late Mariam Makeba. Did you get to meet her before she died? Of course I had a show with her before she died. My aunty travelled then, I think she bought the record in London. The moment I listened to Miriam Makeba’s own, it struck a cord. That’s why if you listen to my music, it has a kind of patterned after her own. Not just your music, your dance steps. (Laughs) That woman really has been a blessing honestly. When I heard she died, I cried. I really cried as if I’d lost a mother. The next person that’s also a role model in the gospel arena is Shirley Caesar. I love Mama Shirley. I love the way she ministers with power and authority. And I love her songs, she writes meaningful songs.. Are you a singer, a performer? How will you describe yourself? I’m a singer, I’m a performer, I’m an artiste, I’m a song writer. I’m a performer because I prefer the stage. I’m not a recording artiste that only record. I’m a performer. You will recall started from the stage. So I’m a stage person. Once I have my musicians with me, just allow me we’ll scatter that place, and turn it right side up. What has your experience been here in Warri? How long have you been here? This is the third day. I came in on Friday. My experience has been wonderful. Word of Life Bible Church is a music church and it’s a word church. So everything here is balanced. When I came in, the hospitality, everything. this, place is an organised place. Everything you want here is here and I thank God for Papa and Mama Ayo. That experience of empowering people teaching people how, to fish and not just giving them fish. They bought hair dryers, bought umbrellas with sewing machines, umbrellas with recharge cards, to empower people. How many churches do such things. I’m really very proud of them.