AS PROMISED A LITTLE LATE PICTURES FROM FASHOLA'S FIRST COUSIN'S WEDDNG!! + FULL URU ARTICLE FROM THE JANUARY EDITION OF TRUE LOVE MAGAZINE!!!
The lovely couple Akinola and Adebola (the govenor's cousin) pictured above. The wedding took place at Hoare's Methodist Church in Yaba and the reception at Unilag's multipurpose hall. Chairman of the occasion was the former inspector general of police, Alhaji Musiliu Smith;
I must say I am loving the traditional strawberry cake.
Next stop our girl Uru's article from the latest edition of True LOVE MA
URU
She likes to do things in her own way, in her own time. It’s an attitude that has had her labeled as “stubborn” and “headstrong” by some since childhood. But, as far as she and her fans are
concerned, it’s an attitude that works for her. It has helped her to maintain her focus and sense of self in the notoriously image-centric music industry.
After years away from Nigeria, Uru is experiencing a homecoming in more ways than one.
After pursuing an education and a career in the United States, she is returning, bearing gifts: an offering of her third album, Africa Mma, which she
is launching in Nigeria before taking it
to other parts of the world. “I have been
trying to come home to launch it for a
while,” she says.
It is an album Uru is clearly very proud
of. Released under the American label,
Tantrum Records, it is an album for which she has drawn on
her culture, her language and her childhood, bringing a message
of celebration, warning and hope with an edgy genre-bending
sound. In her single, You Know, she sings about gossip and the
fact that people can talk about you all they want but in reality
they do not know you. Another popular track on the album is
Iwe. “It means sorrow, sadness, anger, so many things that bring
you down. It’s about saying ‘don’t worry. Sun and rain come
from the same big sky’. That’s the universe.” It was a message
she was sure fellow Nigerians would connect with but, to her
surprise, the first positive reviews came from other quarters.
“When it was tested in some parts of the western world,
everyone loved it. I got fan mail with people saying, ‘I don’t
know exactly what you’re saying, but I love the message’.
Which just goes to show that people are receptive to what
we have to say.”
One of the songs on the album was a hidden track on her first
album. “Wrap Up is about HIV and Aids. On this album I have
Anofela from Côte d’Ivoire joining me.” It was something she
particularly felt the need to talk about. “It’s a touchy subject
here. You see people dying and I’m like ‘Am I not going to talk
about it?’ But the song is fun.” She feels this is the reason it
received a lot of airplay and was even used in some high schools
for sex education. “It’s done well for me
and it still does. I wanted the message to
stay in the future so I might bring new
artists, change it.”
Uru’s typical day starts with a cup of
coffee and an hour and a half of vocal
warm-ups. Then she speaks to her agents
about her schedule. “If there are any
places to go, people to meet, interviews to
do by phone. If I’m working on an album
and am scheduled to go into the studio,
that could last forever.” On the days that
she has off – “very rare” she points out
with a smile – she works out, running or riding a bicycle on the
beach. “I live in California, and my place overlooks the water,
the Pacific Ocean. I can see it from my doorstep, so it’s very
inspiring and sometimes at night you can see the moon on the
water. Depending on where you are, you can see the water on
one side and the mountains on the other side.” Her lifestyle is
anything but typical, but Uru would not have it any other way.
“For me, an average day is never average. Things continually
change and you keep changing with them.”
Change is something she has been going through for years:
making the transition from political science student to model
and make-up artist and now to singer and songwriter.
Not bad right? What do you say?
