Beautiful mother of two, TY Bello moved from being a singer to be a well-respected photographer in Nigeria. She was the official photographer to former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. TY is not just a singer and photographer, she’s also a songwriter and philanthropist.
Early Life/Education
TY Bello, real name Toyin Sokefun-Bello ,was born in Ogun State on January 14, 1978. She attended University of Lagos, where she attained a degree in economics before she proceeded to get a degree in Journalism and fell in love with photography.
Career
Before she delved into photography fully, TY Bello was a member of the defunct gospel band KUSH (an acronym for Kinetically Ushering Salvation into Hearts and Homes) alongside Emem and Lara. She is also a member of the Nigerian photography collective, Depth of Field. She is best known for her singles “Greenland”, “Ekundayo”, “This Man”, “Freedom” and “Funmise”.
Kush gained popularity in the early 2000s with the single “Let’s Live Together”; the group managed to release an album before disbanding.
In 2008, TY Bello released her debut studio album Greenland which took her two years to develop. It was produced by Mosa Adegboye. The album earned her a Nigeria Music Award as well as a Sound City Award. TY Bello describes the album as a journey of her everyday life. The music of Greenland embodies the themes of love, family and nation. The album’s title track is an inspirational song written to motivate Nigerians to liberate themselves from a place of despair, to a place of hope.
TY Bello first revealed plans about her second studio album, The Future, while speaking to Ariya Today. The album was originally slated for release in 2011, and was ranked 12th on Nigerian Entertainment Today’s list of the 12 Albums to Buy in 2011. The singer said she worked with producer Mosa and recorded the album in a few months.
On 19 February 2011, TY Bello released “The Future” as the lead single from the album of the same name. The song urges Nigerian youth to be the change they seek. The Kemi Adetiba-directed music video for “The Future” was released on 3 April 2011. It features cameo appearances from Tara Fela-Durotoye, Sound Sultan, Chude Jideonwo and Banky W.
In October 2011, TY Bello was one of the celebrities featured in an eight-minute anti-rape video compiled by the Nigerian Ministry of Youth Development. The anti-rape video shed light on the victim of a gang rape at Abia State University in September 2011.
In December 2013, TY Bello released her single “Yahweh” featuring Wale Adenuga. The song features additional vocals from Nwando Okeke and Mosa. The first line of the song was written in 2004 during a photo-shoot.
On 10 October 2014, TY Bello released her third studio album The Morning Songbook for free digital download via SoundCloud. It was released without any promotion and comprises 10 tracks, including “Yahweh”, “Thirsty” and “Jesu Jesu”. The album features collaborations with M Sugh and Fela Durotoye.
Udochukwu Ikwuagwu of the Breaking Times gave the album a rating of 7 out of 10, extensively stating, “TY Bello and Mosa deserve credit for the superb songwriting and production employed on this. At times, the vocal performance was bolstered by emotions rather than actual dexterity but the ease deployed by the back-up choristers made this ignorable. This project is one worth every dime even though it was given free; this project is one that will endure for a long while.
In 2018, TY Bello started a music series ‘Spontaneous Song’, which has been described as “new sound rising in the body of Christ today: pure, unadulterated, and straight from the womb of heaven.”
With Spontaneous Worship (Song), TY Bello is collaborating with many singers who can be considered to be Psalmists, singing from the spirit, not just gospel artists. Every new track from the series brings new spirit, pure and undiluted as initially labelled.
One of the big breaks from the series is her collaboration with Tope Alabi on ‘Logan Ti Ode’ that enjoyed massive acceptance and already garnered over 3.2 million streams on her YouTube channel alone.
In 2019, she released ‘The Spirit of Light’ album, a collaborative project with veteran gospel singer Tope Alabi.
The Olajumoke Orisaguna Discovery
TY Bello discovered former bread seller (now a supermodel) when was creating a photo shoot for the British rapper Tinie Tempah for ThisDay Magazine in Lagos. Orisagunna, While hawking bread on the streets of Lagos, she unknowingly photo-bombed the shoot session and her journey to grace began when Bello saw how remarkable she was in the picture that eventually made ThisDay Magazine’s cover page.
Breakout Songs
- Greenland
- Ekundayo
Albums
- Greenland (2018)
- The Future (2011)
- The Morning Songbook (2014)
Awards
- 2008 Nigeria Entertainment Awards – Best New Act of the Year
- 2009 Soundcity Music Video Awards – Best Female Video For ‘Ekundayo’
Personal Life
TY Bello got married to her husband is Kashetu Bello in 2009. TY Bello always preferred not to let the public know a lot about her personal life, so her family was a big secret for everyone. That is why you will not find TY Bello husband picture on the Internet.
A bit more about her personal life was found out when TY Bello decided to share a special story with everyone about her own path to motherhood. The couple gave birth to twin boys named Christian and Christopher on 10 October 2014, which coincidentally marked the release of The Morning Songbook.