I Love Adventure — Nikki Laoye-Oturu

Award-winning crooner Nikki Laoye-Oturu in an interview with Punch talks about her career and the challenges of being a gospel artiste and her love for adventure... namely the dress she wore to the ebonylife TV launch.

I am a very adventurous person but I try to hold back sometimes. That night, I was styled by Veronica Odeka. She thought the dress would look great on me.  For once I just wanted to show forth my adventurous self out of curiosity I wanted to know what it felt like to dress like that and feel sexy. Quite alright, a lot of people felt offended but this was all about me and I was not looking out to hurt anybody. I doubt if I will wear anything like that again because I am not one who likes to show body parts.

Has being married placed some kind of restriction on you?

No, it has not. I am very blessed to be married to my best friend. He has interests in music and media and he is on my management team as well. He has been the best upgrade for me.

Do you think female artistes are given the same opportunities as their male counterparts?

It can get better. I get very upset and people at some point began to call me a feminist. I am someone who has been fighting for more female involvement in the industry. I went as far as starting my own show on radio called Girls rock with Nikki Laoye.  Recently I got very upset when I started seeing gospel concerts having only male artistes when there are female artistes who can pull the same crowd and even more.

I know gospel is your forte but are you sometimes tempted to experiment with other genres of music?

I don’t see that line between gospel and secular music. The most important thing is the message you are trying to pass across. That I decided to do a song about love does not make me a secular artiste, Love is a general topic. People just like to tie certain things down to certain factors whereas the message is the most important thing. If you decide to call me an inspirational artiste, there is  no problem about that  so long as you feel I am making music which inspires you. If you choose to call me a gospel artiste, so long as you believe I am giving you the good news, then I am at home with it. I have a dance song called one; two, three and it can blend well with any secular music.  It’s the message that is of utmost importance. I can use any style  to express myself.

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