Simi, a versatile multiple award-winning singer and songwriter is also a sound engineer and not a stranger in the Nigerian music industry, her music style is basically hinged in the rhythm and blues, soul and hip-hop music genres.
Early Life
Simisola Bolatito Adeola Opeyemi Oreoluwa Ogunleye, simply known as ‘Simi’ was born on April 19, 1988 in Ojuelegba, Surulere, Lagos state, Nigeria as the last of four children and the only girl. As a result of being the only girl, she used to be a tomboy, trying to fit in with her brothers. She is a native of Ondo state, Nigeria, raised by a single mother as her parents separated when she was 9.
Education
Simi attended Stars International College, Ikorodu, Lagos State. She got a Bsc. Mass Communication at the Covenant University.
Music Career
Simi started out singing and dancing in her early teens as a member of the teenage church choir, she wrote her very first song at the age of 10. She delved into music professionally in 2008 following the release of her debut studio album Ogaju, produced by Samklef. The album consisted of a variety of songs such as “Iya Temi” and “Ara Ile”.
2013, Simi officially signed a production contract with talented producer/songwriter Oscar Heman-Ackah’s ‘Oscar Music Production’ after they both nurtured and created a fresh and genius direction to her sound, style and music in its entirety. She met Oscar in 2011.
Through Oscar Music Production, the talented singer got a record deal with X3M Music in 2014 following the release of her EP tagged ‘Restless’. The EP contained a 5-track cover of hit songs by international singers like Rihanna’s ‘Man Down’ and Adele’s ‘Set Fire to the Rain’. X3M Music is a Lagos-based record label which is home to Nigerian R&B sensation Praiz.
Simi’s genre of music is Afro-pop, although she also dabbles in pop and soul. Her two singles, ‘Tiff’ & ‘E No Go Funny’ dropped on June 9th 2014.
On February 14, 2016, Simi released the Oscar Heman Ackah-produced love ballad “Love Don’t Care”. It received frequent radio airplay and was met with positive reviews. “Love Don’t Care” effectively addresses tribalism and discrimination in Nigeria. The music video of the song was directed by Clarence Peters.
On October 27, Simi collaborated with Falz to release Chemistry. In anticipation of her second studio album ‘Simisola’, a 12-track album which features only Adekunle Gold as guest artiste, she released two singles “Smile for Me” and “Joromi” backed with music videos which were directed by Clarence Peters and Aje Films respectively. She unveiled the album’s tracklist via Instagram on September 1, 2017 before it was released on September 8 to relatively positive reviews and went on to debut at number five on the Billboard World Albums chart.
Since the release of her album, she has released for music videos off the album including “O wa nbe”, “Complete me”, “Gone for good” and “Aimasiko” which was a cover to a song of similar title by Ebenezer Obey with cameo appearance from him. On August 11, 2018 simi released another hit single of her style “I dun care” alongside a video for it.
In 2019, Simi dropped another high-rated album titled ‘Omo Charlie Champagne, Vol. 1’
Breakout Song
- Tiff
- E No Go Funny
- Jamb Question
- Love Don’t Care
- Smile for Me
- Joromi
- I Dun Care
- Ayo
Album
- Ogaju (2008)
- Simisola (2017)
- Omo Charlie Champagne, Vol. 1 (2019)
EP
- Chemistry (with Falz) (2016)
Awards
- 2015 Nigeria Entertainment Awards – Most Promising Act to Watch
- 2015 City People Entertainment Awards – Most Promising Act of The Year
- 2016 City People Entertainment Awards – Female Artiste of the Year
- 2016 Nigerian Teen Choice Awards – Choice Upcoming Female Artist
- The Hadies 2016 Best Collaboration – “Soldier” (with Falz)
- The Hadies 2016 Best Vocal Performance (Female) “Love Don’t Care”
- 2017 City People Entertainment Awards – Best Collabo of the Year For “No Forget” (Ft. Adekunle Gold)
- 2017 AFRIMA Awards – Songwriter of the Year
- 2018 The Headies – Best Recording of the Year For “Joromi”
- 2018 The Headies – Best R&B single For “Smile For Me”
- 2018 The Headies – Album of the Year For “Simisola”
- 2018 Future Awards Africa – Prize for Music
Scandals
Simi was rumoured to be romantically involved with Falz but both singers rubbished the claims on different occasions, insisting that they were mere friends. “I’m not dating Falz. I was not dating Falz. I never said I was dating Falz”, Simi had insisted during an interview session on Wazobia Max’s ‘Talk Talk’.
Few weeks ago, Simi asked internet fraudsters known as Yahoo Boys to stop listening and promoting the songs of Nigerian artistes because the perpetrators of yahoo yahoo are bringing shame to Nigeria.
Reacting to Simi’s opinion about Yahoo Boys, Naira Marley who is also a musician tackled her and said in a post of his that Yahoo Yahoo is not a crime as anyone who knows the history of slavery would understand. His comment sparked a heated debate as some took sides with him while others took Simi’s path.
Personal Life
On January 9, 2019, Simi got married to singer Adekunle Gold in a private wedding ceremony. They dated for five years before they tied the nuptial knot.
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