As the years go by, Simi, an Afro-pop princess, keeps improving on her craft with more exposure, live performances and wooing more fans to her genre of music.
Born as Simisola Bolatito Ogunleye, the Mass Communications graduate of Covenant University Ota, Ogun State, who turned songbird, and sound engineer, started performing in her early teens as a member of the teenage church choir. She vividly remembers her very first tune, which she wrote at the age of 10.
Her debut album, Ogaju, produced by Samklef was released in 2008 and an EP, Restless, followed in 2014. Besides Ogaju, her debut album spawned hits such as Ara Ile, Iya Temi, to name a few.
From Jamb Question; her single released in February 2015, Open and Close, Outta My Head and Love Don’t Care, it has been a hot streak of stellar music releases for the songstress who describes her music genre as Afro-soul.
However, Simi’s music career took a much more positive turn when she signed to X3M Music. Beyond honing her craft, the Lagos-based record label offers Simi platform to meet, learn and collaborate with other record label mates, especially Praiz, Nigerian R&B sensation; Sammy, recording artiste and songwriter; and D-Truce, recording and performing rap artiste.
Since then, she has won the Best Promising Act at the 2015 Nigeria Entertainment Award, Most Promising Act of the Year at the 2015 City People award, had two nominations at the 2015 Headies for Best Alternative Song and Video of the Year (Jamb Question) and two at the Nigerian Music Video Award for Best Soft Rock/Alternative video (Jamb Question), and was named on YNaija.com’s New Establishment List for 2016.
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As well, Open and Close, her single released on November 17, 2015, and Love Don’t Care, her most recent single released last quarter 2016, met with amazing critical reviews and massive airplay.
Her studio albums include; Ogaju (2008), Chemistry (with Falz) (2016), Simisola (2017) and Omo Charlie Champagne, Vol. 1 (2019). She also released an EP, which she tagged Restless II (2020).
On a critical assessment, a keen observer will describe Simi’s genre of music as Afro-pop, but the songstress often dabbles into pop and soul, and hence can comfortably describe her style as Afro-soul; a blend of Afro and soul.
In a review of ‘Love Don’t Care’, her music video and a love ballad, the Nigerian entertainment media anonymously approved her artistic talent. One of the reviews noted that: “Again, Simi wows her fans with her artistic talents in ‘Love Don’t Care’. The love ballad speaks of a love that soars above tribal and social prejudices. Fans love it because of its compelling narrative and beautiful harmony of the traditional instrumentals”.
In another review on Outta My Head, another reviewer noted that Simi used her bubbly personality to infectiously deliver and make more digestible material that could easily become moody and haunting. “Outta My Head” begins with piano strings and a mid-tempo beat, accompanied by Simi’s now-familiar vocal styling. It is a playful yet serious meditation on infatuation and the downsides of a love gone sour. Written in a smooth, simple style that is instantly relatable, the material could easily become moody and haunting but Simi sells it and makes it more digestible, thanks to her bubbly personality and infectious delivery”.
Simi is not just talented, but relentless as she is still writing and recording more songs to delight her army of followers on social media and fans of her music.
The songstress is also aware of the high expectations from her burgeoning fans across Africa and is not relenting in meeting the expectations even as she prepares to rule the airwaves once again with a hot streak of stellar music releases, collaborations and live performances in 2022.
Already, she is out there as one of the three judges of Nigerian Idol Season 7, which kicked off this February, while joining the likes of Obi Asika and D’Banj.
As Multichoice Nigeria, the organisers of the competition, and her fans look up to her, she plans to be very honest and have fun and hopefully gain inspiration from those that come on the Nigerian Idol show this year.
