Women From Nigeria

"It’s your own world, create whatever you like. With melodies, with instruments and with words. It’s just fun."

"People say they want your art, but they don’t want the artist to express themselves in truth."

"I believe education is key to fostering independence, and allowing individuals to make their own decisions and thrive without external constraints … enabling them to contribute positively to society and reach their full potential."

"The way you have ups is the same way you have downs,It's balanced. It's life. It's what makes life sweet. You enjoy and appreciate the good times, and you also appreciate the bad times too because it ushers in the good times and it teaches you how to appreciate [them]."

"I want to be a billionaire,for real. Honestly if you love to help you have to have some kind of money,” she said, adding that when she becomes a billionaire, she would give scholarships to people because she went to school with some international students and knew that sometimes they could not pay their school fees."

"The finish line is the day I die. Of course, I want a Grammy. But even after the Grammys, I know myself. I will also want more."

"You as an artiste, should see yourself as a business. You are a walking currency which means your face, voice, silhouette, and everything about you is valuable."

"Music is a gift from God. You know what it means to create a song and when you are asleep, people are dancing to it. Some people have sex to it? You go to different parts of the world and people are singing to it word for word. You cannot tell me that is not power. It is spiritual. So, when I make music, there are different ways it comes."

"While you’re here, it is about your own happiness. That is how I live my life, on my own terms as Teniola Apata."

"For me, it is freedom; freedom to be yourself in every area of your life. When you have that freedom, you can change the world because you are yourself. Why does another person’s opinion matter so much to your happiness and life?"

"“Mistakes are not fatal, and failures are only battle scars"."

"For You is a song I really wanted to send a message of sacrificing everything for the one you love and I am glad Davido helped do that and even more."

"It was alright and it did form a good starting point for my musical career as people took notice of my desire to pursue music professionally."

"It was amazing. I grew up in a big family and it was fun most of the time."

"....Uyo Meyo means, when others win and you celebrate with them, your own too will come. I was happy for my younger sister when she graduated before me, and when my turn finally came, I was happy, and that’s where that song came from."

"Not being able to graduate on time slowed me down from my music. My parents said, ‘if you’re going to make music, you have to graduate’. I was very frustrated."

"Without the Holy Spirit and a vibrant relationship with the Father many are swallowed up by the darkness and the hole of loneliness . That is why some may be sorrounded with much wealth, partying friends and family but still feel empty, lonely and surrounded by darkness and they cannot see or imagine a future !!!!! Peace and fulfillment is in Jesus."

"Refuse to be pull down by voices of condemnation and fear around you. Let the voice of God through His Word be the loudest voice in your ear"

"They have the freedom, through song, to discover their destiny and maximize their hidden potential through communion with the one true God. Indeed, your tireless efforts are completely deserving of the respect, administration, and commendation of the United States Congress."

"You must come to the point where you are content being unmarried. Then you would find a man with the same purpose as you. But if you are not content being unmarried, it is unlikely that you would be content being married, because your contentment doesn’t come from being married or unmarried."

"“ don’t ever think I’ve had a ‘this-is-it’ moment. I’ve just known that I love to sing and this is what I want to do.” “When you are serving, you just want the world to be a part of it."

"Your life is always as a result of what you have seen in your minds eye.. You first see it in your mind and then you See it in reality!"

"https://thenationonlineng.net/tems-my-songs-are-mostly-from-experiences/"

"“I think it’s important to be real with yourself and the people around you.”"

"When did I realize I was blown? When I got a DM from RiRi."

"I can understand, when it's the speaking."

"It’s not necessarily people, it’s really just a system. But once you’re an artist you’re not really an artist, you’re an entertainer – your life is entertainment for people. It’s a system of distraction."

"I think the perfectionism is definitely a Nigerian thing. For me, it’s definitely Lagos. Because if you check around the world, Nigerians are always the best at whatever they’re doing, whether that’s braids, hair, make-up, doctors… They’ll give you food and it’ll be over good, so that when you’re paying them, you know why."

"When I see any one of you gracing a stage, I feel like that’s me. We’re all winning and we’re about to move in like a tsunami… know that love lives on this side. As we show the world how it’s done."

"I don’t want to be somebody that follows; I don’t want to be the ‘after’ person."

"The more power the people have, the greater we become as a whole."

"What I hope that God does through me, is for the image of the African woman to be changed to something luxurious, or desired, or sought after. For the demand of the African woman to go up… Let us not be chasing foreign things, let us be something to be chased. And that can’t just happen with me; it’s a together thing. It has to happen with a whole industry of women already doing real and amazing things. That’s the future."

"But I wasn’t thinking about how to be better in the limelight, I was just thinking of how to be a better person in general, the best possible version of myself. And I think once you start being visible, a lot of these things that you didn’t know existed start coming to light, you start knowing yourself more, too."

"I had a show the night before, so on Friday I was just sleeping the whole day."

"Well, I’ve never felt more connected with my fans like that before. It just felt like we were all in one room and it was a lot of people, but it felt like we might as well have been in a big ass living room, just vibing. I really felt like that experience and the presence was just incredibly intense. I haven’t let go so much as I did before that day in terms of performing."

"Locally, I'm definitely hoping for Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Niniola. I'm also hoping for my friend, Dami Oniru. I'm hoping we can release some of our collaborations. Internationally, I'd like Stormzy, Ms Banks, and maybe Khalid. This is the longest shot ever but I want to work with Frank Ocean. Koffee as well! She's top on my list."

"It was just really crazy. I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. That was when I realized things have actually changed."

"Everything happened organically. The fact that so many people resonate with it makes me feel really good. I'm happy they can feel it."

"Freestyling, for me, feels like a release. A lot of things I feel, I can't explain, I just sing it. So it was one of those days when it was just inside me. I don't know where it came from. By the time I finished, I knew I had something special."

"It was just very easy, it wasn't something I had to try for. So I understood music to be my thing and no matter what it was going to take, I had to end up in it."

"Music is my happy place. Music is the only thing that makes me feel truly at home. If I'm sad, it's the only thing I can run to. If someone says to me "here's a billion dollars, just chill" I would still do music. I mean, I'd collect the billion dollars and then do music. That's how bad it is. That's how much I love it."

"I was very naive. I didn’t know that people lie, I didn’t know that people didn’t write their own songs. Music has always been my expression of how I felt. It’s always been my life."

"That sense of being an outcast continued into high school. “I just wasn’t popular; I cried a lot, I was very shy. I would cover my head with a blazer. I wouldn’t be able to talk – I just was a loner. And my only escape was the music room."

"I used to write poems a lot – I’ll just sit down and write things I’m feeling, and it’ll come out so poetic, even if I’m just talking about breakfast."

"I love, love, love guitars and chords. I like things that are based on the instruments I originally learned—violin, flutes. I like things that sound raw and pure. When it comes to drums, I like them very percussion-heavy and in my own way. I enjoy hard kicks and tight snares."

"I got exposed to a couple of studios, and I met a few producers and started seeing the process of music being made. It made me question, “What is this?” I’d been only exploring piano and guitar at the time, and now you’re telling me I can do more than I’m already doing?"

"Frank Ocean played a huge part; the first song that I’d heard by him was “Swim Good.” I used to also listen to Lil Wayne and Aaliyah. Lauryn Hill’s “I Gotta Find Peace of Mind” was very, very spiritual. I could feel the energy on it. Songs like those made me want to release. The songs that all of these artists sing are releases and the expression of their spirits."

"It is about showing people they can be who they are truly, without the masks and pretenses. You are a human being, and you can find yourself."

"I talk about this pain, now, so that mothers, when their young daughters are starting their periods for the first time, and it is traumatic, they will go and sit with the doctors, ask questions and have it checked out"

"It is extraordinary the effect that endometriosis has on your life especially if you are ignorant. Ignorance is of two types – knowingly or unknowingly. My mother, unknowingly, was ignorant, because nobody had educated her about endometriosis"