Popular and highly secretive Nigerian musician, Di'ja, has opened on many issues about her life in a new interview.
Afro Di'ja
Afro Di’ja is a popular Nigerian singer who is considered in many quarters to have one of the most beautiful faces in the industry.
The singer whose real name is Hadiza Salma Blell, is signed to Mavins Record Label is making huge strides around Nigeria.
Afro Di'ja had an exclusive interview with LIB recently where she gave reasons why she had a secret wedding to her husband, Rotimi and why she never shares photos of him online.
Read the full interview below (sic):
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LIB: Tell us how it’s been, working with Don Jazzy, and Mavin Record as a whole?
Di’ja: Working with Mavin has really, really been a dream come true, because, the record is like a family. It’s like working with your brother. I mean sometimes you have your arguments and other times you have your fun moments. There are so many memorable moments and pretty cool ones. Sometimes when you are working in Mavin, you don’t get to see each other that much. Sometimes you see, Korede, sometimes you see, Reekado, and sometimes you see Tiwa, but we are getting to a point where we see each other alot more now. So it’s fun, it’s exciting and it has its own moments too. But what you do is to pick up and you start moving again, yeah!
LIB: talking about the record label, you guys recently got a new addition to the family. What do you think of Iyanya joining the label?
Di’ja: It is Iyanya, and i mean, he is Iyanya. He is a brand on his own, so him coming in, only adds to the label and makes it greater especially for someone like myself that is still seeing so many new things that I could add and then increase my own talents and what I want to share with everybody. He is a blessing, because there is so much we can learn from him, and there is so much I can learn from him. You know, in Mavin record we are like a family, we like to collaborate with each other, and by the Grace of God, we are going to get to that point where we start doing songs together, so i think it’s a new chapter that we should all look forward to.
LIB: How do you manage being a mother and an artiste?
Di’ja: (Laughs) Well, there are so many people that have done this before me, thousands and millions of them. So I think that the best thing to have is an amazing support system, when you have an amazing support system and you have people that are willing to work together with you, for your interest as well as theirs, it makes it a lot easier to get bye especially when you are doing stuff. I mean, I can’t tell you it’s been easy. I give my mom so much respect, I respect her so much already for the kind of support i get from her. it makes you want to appreciate your own mom or your parents like ten times more. It is amazing, for me. It’s an amazing journey right now. My son is the light of my life. You know what i mean. I also have an amazing husband that is very supportive, and i have an amazing family, and we all work together to make it happen, yeah.
LIB: You don’t share pictures of your husband on the social media, why is that?
Di’ja: Even before we got married he is a very private person, and i actually believe in respecting people’s zones until they are ready. It’s not like we don’t. So because a lot of things don’t happen right now-people are like, why are you not doing this and why are you not doing that, what’s wrong, what are you hiding, you know what i mean? We are not hiding anything, we actually go to events together and do stuff together, and i just feel, for me, am not very good at..., I like enjoying the moment, yeah, and am actually very bad at doing the posting thing. I don’t know if you have noticed, i mean recently, I started doing selfies when people were like, Di’ja, why are you not doing selfies? So not long ago, i did my very first mirror selfie, (Laughs). Not like i don’t want to do these things sometimes, I just enjoy the moments and forget to take pictures when we hang out, that’s why presently, i am always begging my crew, (‘please help me take pictures mek me sef dey pose na, wetin dey happen?’) So, it’s just that thing where I am enjoying the moment and then I forget. So we are not hiding anything. Sometimes if he can make it with me to an event, he comes, and if can’t, he will come to the next. So it’s not like he is not there, or that it doesn’t happen, i guess it’s just that, it happens and i don’t get to translate it on my page.
LIB: Was that why you did a very low key wedding?
Di’ja: Well, i mean, if you call having about 400 people grace your wedding low key, then i guess, yeah. It was more of just intimate and it’s also in my home town, Kaduna, so it’s kind of hard to get people to come over there and then Kaduna is not as ‘Noisy’ as Lagos. So anything like that could be probably called low key, but like i said, most of these things are happening but, where the problem lies is that i just don’t translate them onto being posted on my page. And i guess in the ‘Post it’ ‘Tweet it’ world; you almost kind of look abnormal if you don’t. But it’s not like am going out of my way not to, i guess it’s just not in my character to do it all the time, but i’m also getting better at my Instagram. At least you see my baby and all other stuff, (laughs). So I always say there is difference between privacy and secrecy, it’s not something to hide. Again, i guess people forget that when you are in the entertainment industry, you also have to live a normal life. For instance, i wake up in the morning and i give my son a bath, and sometimes my mom will, and other times, it is a maid and an aunt that would help me with him. So don’t forget you have a real life too and you have people to answer to as well. Again you wake up and you have people that are depending on you, and people you pay for the work they do for you, you know as much as we have this entertainment life, and it’s amazing, i mean, God bless you all for liking us so much because it’s actually your love that has put us on the pedestal, but we also do these things and wake up with a regular life, so in that sense and sometimes because i could get carried away, that's majorly the problem.
LIB: Let’s get back to music. Your music kind of stands out from what every other Mavin artiste does. How have you been able to maintain your distinct style of music?
Di’ja: First of all, thank you so much for even listening to my music, but i don’t think, adding new things into your music or adding commercial things into your music, makes you un-original. I actually love commercial music. I think I’m in my own world because sometimes i actually think that my music is not commercial pop, but it is everybody else that tells me something else. So i guess as the saying goes, the word celebrity means you are a celebrated person, meaning, you are working for the people. So i don’t run away from being influenced by certain things because no matter how you look at it, everything from when you are born is influenced by something, even how you think and what you are, regardless that somebody told you that, that’s what you are going to be, it’s later, later that you will start forming that, ah!, ‘i want to be myself; you know what i mean. So we have a platform called 'music' to express different things. But first of all, i always give it up to the grace of God, i cannot lie, I’m very much in the believe that it’s not all me, because, as much as i have plans, it’s God that says it all. So apart from that, i honestly just do what i love. I do music i would love to hear and when same is compared to what every other person is doing, people would kind it. But i don’t really think there is so much difference in music in terms of how it makes people feel. For me music is how you interpret it, if it makes you feel good and you are listening to it, then that is your kind of music and there is no need to be figuring it out, like what kind of genre it is, because even as we dey now, (everything just dey fuse) you know, everything just ends up coming back together. So for me, i think i just enjoy what i do and i do what i enjoy, and if you like it along the way, I’m very grateful and if you don’t, i hope that i do something you’d like. But i try not to... (as you guys deh talk am, trend setter), i just try my best, even if I try it and I look somehow doing it, I try it again and you know, one might just end up refining it. Everybody started somehow, and refined themselves later. For me, i just keep doing what am doing and refining same, so the more people I know and the more things that influence me, the more it allows me to form my own music. Again, I also think it’s the lack of my ability to copy someone, that gives me the 'how' to form my own music. (So because i no fit be you, i go com add one kind style like this to my song), and people would be like, ‘ah! You are original. So nothing under the sun is original my dear, we are just influenced by something somehow.
LIB: How come apart from ‘Dorobucci’ you and Tiwa have not collaborated?
Di’ja: Uhm, do you see how many we are? And how do you know we haven’t? I keep telling people that, it’s not all the songs that you recorded today, that you’d be release today. So depending on how long you have been working. When you started is only as irrelevant as whatever people feel that they already know about what you are doing, but then you have been working on many things, but I always say, how do you even know we haven’t collaborated yet, it’s just that the said song, you haven’t heard it yet. Then there are so many of us, and there are so many songs in Mavin right now, because we like music, and each and every one of us, bring something very different, which is why it works so well. So sometimes you see similarities some other times you see differences, and it is those differences that complements the other. So you never know what to expect until you see.
LIB: How do you feel about Tiwa being referred to as the first lady of Mavin records?
Di’ja: But i met her there, right? I mean, she is the first lady of Mavin records. It’s kind of funny when people want to state the obvious. Tiwa is such an inspiring person. Set aside the fact that we are even in the same record label, i mean, she has done so much and been through so much, and she still keeps this standard of performance that she does all the time, you know what i mean, you can see it. For me, it’s inspiring, and like i said, i met her there. When you go to a place and you meet someone there, it’s one of two things, it’s either you learn from them or you don’t, and so what i am doing and what would be good for me is to learn from somebody that is that strong and that can inspire me and it’s really mad cool, yeah.
LIB: So what is the biggest challenge you’ve faced working with Mavin record?
Di’ja: I think one of the greatest challenge you will face working with Mavin is actually feeling like you are creating hits. Because hits are being made in that place, and na you go tell yourself sey, (omoh, mek i stand up), you know what i mean. Whatever challenge i am going to be talking about now, is going to be my strength later, because, those guys force you to be
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