Nancy Nanz to duet with Nigerian Sensation Ore Fagbenle

Friday, February 13, 2009
Gambian RnB diva and crooner Nancy Nanz is geared to collaborate with the Gambia-based Nigerian RnB, Soul and Reggae artist, Ore Fagbenle. The 16 year-old, who has overtaken the Gambian airwaves, is rumoured to have finalized plans for the collaboration, which is said to be cut in a studio in Glasgow, Scotland.

The promotions manager for Semper Fidelis, the record label for the Nigerian artist in The Gambia, Mr Musa Ndow, confirmed that there are plans for Ore Fagbenle to record to a song with Nance Nanz, but has no details as to the title of the song or the genre.

“Plans are on the way for Ore to cut a couple of tracks with Nance Nanz, but it is not in my capacity to disclose what is involved, as it is outside my capacity as promotions manager,” Mr Ndow confided to this reporter, during an interview recently.

He also asserted that it can only be confirmed by the Artists & Repertoire Department of the record label, who handle such things.

Ore Fagbenle has presently released a double single, containing such tracks as “Send a Line to Gerald”, a song talking about domestic violence with advice for females to stand up against it, and SOS (Live in Freetown), a live recording of a gig she had in Freetown, Sierra Leone, late in 2008. The second song, SOS, which means Save Our Souls, is a plea to the God Almighty to help the poor and the destitute to overcome the everyday woes of poverty, the intimidation of the rich and the corruption of both politicians and the ‘419’ or internet scammers, who spoil the image of the good people in the society. You can hear her music in all major radio stations in The Gambia. Her video, which was shot in the UK, should be in the airwaves very soon.

Semper Fidelis Entertainment is a record label interested in developing up and coming African artists. They are presently working with a number of West African artists. It was founded by Leo Perkins, a producer, singer and songwriter, who was once resident in The Gambia.

Her name, Oreoluwa, means the ‘Gift of God’ in her native Yoruba, which she speaks fluently. Ore is a new phenomenon on the Nigerian music scene. Her music speaks for itself, and she was discovered by the CEO of Semper Fidelis Entertainment, Leo Perkins, while she was singing in a church choir. Her alto was so amazing that the experienced producer, song writer and A&R manager stopped over to drop his business card. And as they say, the rest was history!
A few months later they were holed up in a suburban studio in Fajara, a town in the outskirts of
Banjul, The Gambia, recording songs meant for her debut album, with an undecided titled.

Influences

Ore’s voice has a rich jazz tang to it, in the class of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday. On a good day, you’d hear her playing a classic Aretha Franklin record on her dog-eared ipod nano. You could also hear her playing Neyo, Duffy, Adele or Amy Winehouse.

Her musical influences range from different genres like soul, jazz, RnB, reggae, country, folk and beyond. She has a lot Christian influences as well, like Cece Winans, Don Connelly, Kirk Franklin, to mention but a few. She also draws a lot inspiration from Juju musicians like Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, I.K. Dairo and various other Nigerian musicians that help to form her worldview as a young girl growing up in a working class neighbourhood in Lagos.

Author: Njie Baldeh