Omawumi Covers Latest Issue of Guardian Life Magazine

Award-winning musician, brand ambassador, diva and mother of two it is clear that she has worked zealously to get to the point where she is presently categorizes herself as being without competition.

Oma Wonder’s interview with Guardian Life:

“We get to know the real Omawumi, not just the person we see on social media. Observing her in action as she indulges in light-hearted conversations with the team as we set up, ever ready with words of wisdom at the tip of her tongue. She is clearly a perfectionist. You may have witnessed her in this element with clips from behind the scene (BTS) videos on social media of her rehearsing with the likes of renowned producer Cobhams.”

Oma being a woman and mother is passionate about empowering women like herself and this further reveals the passion with which she writes her songs and sings as well because everything about the songstress is synonymous to her lifestyle. Isn’t this why her fans adore her?

She has made music with Grammy winner Angelique Kidjo as well as Salif Keita, best known as “the golden voice of Africa”. She is also using the platform she has to encourage people with building what we might just begin to call the Nigerian Dream.

In her interview with GL, she talked about growing the Oma Wonder Brand which she described as an industry success story. Talking about the journey after Idols West Africa:

To be honest I didn’t even expect to get this far, I am not trying to be modest but it’s just that sometimes you just have to be grateful for every opportunity that you get. I didn’t think that I was going to be able to make it this far because even if I was a product of a reality show that was very big, there were also people who are also products of these reality shows that haven’t done so well so time and chance happens to us all. I just take what I can in gratefulness.

She also revealed that most times she releases a song a year and not the sort of artist that can throw out three songs every year.

The times are changing and it is ideal that one should change with it but na small small, them no dey learn left hand for old age. You have to do it as small small as you sabi. I feel like if I go and overdo it, it will go and coba me in front. In 2014, I released Megbele. In 2015 November, I released Play na Play and in 2016 November, I was working on releasing Butterflies but time did not allow me to do what I was supposed to do with the song, so I brought it now.  It is part of the album Timeless and it is going to be out before the end of March, ideally.Well! It has been good, I can’t complain, I can’t lie. I think life and circumstances are nudging me in the direction that I should go.

When asked if being a mother in music and building a family has made her look at her career differently, the artist gave a big YES!

Yes! I won’t lie.  It is a very difficult choice to make but you have to make that choice. Most people find a beautiful balance, especially when money dey many and I pray that God gives me the room to get that kind of balance. As a mother, it changed my reasoning, there are some people that will disagree with what I am saying and say “No, because you are a mother doesn’t mean that you should cool down, you should go twice as hard”. See someone like Beyoncé, it doesn’t stop her from being a great mum but I am of the opinion that at some point music is as I feel it. I put it out, so technically I have not really changed my sound.  I have one or two upbeat songs that will put you in that place but Omawumi will always bring out songs that will make you ask, what was she thinking? Where was she going with this? It is always songs that will make you question yourself and definitely good music that can stand the test of time. So yeah! It did change me with sense of my honesty with regards to my music, I decided that I can go into the studio and churn out hits all the time but the ideal thing to do is to make sure that your fans know the truth about your style, about your music, what you feel inside and then you put it out there so that the honesty of your sound will shine through.

When asked if there are competitions in the music industry, Oma said:

There is a lot of competition in the sense of popularity, what some people regard as “success”, that zeal and the desire to be called number one. Been there done that, I have the T-shirt ironed in my house and I am looking at it. I have come to find out that it is not as fantastic as it is made out to be. I would love to be number one if there is any such thing but at the same time no be because of say I wan chop meat I go come call cow egbon. Sometimes it just boils down to what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and if you are happy doing what you are doing because every month, I can keep churning out hits, pulling that kind of force which is very good but there is also a downside to it that most people don’t know about, the demand is more, the attention on you becomes more and I wish there was a way that I could  get that attention without all that backlash involved.

She ended by saying there is competition but she doesn’t really have any competition.

Oma is an independent, successful artist who is also passionate about empowering other women in music, she talks about her record label called Oma Records. She’s finicky about the kind of artists that she signs on her label that they must be passionate about her brand.

The artist also revealed also revealed that she is into a corporate social responsibility(CSR), where she likes having conversations with up and coming female artists to nudge them in the right direction and also have conversations with women in general.

“I have an NGO called Little House of No Regrets. It is more like having a roundtable for women, like AA for women, we have an in-house counselor for women and we can connect you to other NGOs that can answer to your specific needs.”