By Oluwadamilola Akinduro, Kayode Afolabi
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Nigeria gospel singer and a broadcaster, Elizabeth Abimbola Ojo popularly known as Elizavocat in an interview with Weekend Extravaganza narrates how her musical career started.
Can we meet you?
I am Elizabeth Abimbola Ojo, popularly known as Elizavocat. I am a graduate of Mass Communication from Ibadan Polytechnic.
How did the journey start?
My music journey actually started in church, then from church, I went to Ibadan Polytechnic which gave me a lot of leisure time to build my music career.
I officially started music on a professional level in 2016 when I got admission into Ibadan Polytechnic.
Actually, I started with an all-female band before I started adding guys to my team. So, let’s say I started in Polytechnic Ibadan, God bless Poly Ibadan.
Do you think/know this is what you are going to do?
Well, just like the word of the Lord that “when it’s time, I the Lord will make it happen”. I didn’t start music maybe because I just wanted to be like every other person or you know, be a musician, it was a divine instruction from God.
So, before I officially started music, I had started playing keyboard but I was just doing it for fun as at then until I got a divine instruction from God to add the singing part to it.
So, I got to know like it was something I was meant to do when I heard from the Lord and that is still what I am standing on and I will continue to do.
What are the challenges when you started and how were you able to navigate through?
Well, one of the challenges that I faced when I started was actually gender based and I guess it’s actually because I am a lady pianist, so you know, most people just feel like”kilo fe se, kilo o le se”.
You know maybe because of the part of the world we find ourselves but I was able to look beyond that because I know that yeah, God is taking me farther than where I am now. So I didn’t actually allow all of those things to get to me and part of the challenges I faced was actually from my home as well, the fact that I was a female and it took them a while to understand my vision and give me the full support that I needed.
But, I was able to convince them and also prayed a lot because nothing can be done without prayer. I was able to pray that God should touch the hearts of my parents and my family to reason along with me and I’m grateful that God heard my prayers.
What/who inspired your style of playing piano and singing?
Actually, my style of music especially the keyboard simultaneously was not actually inspired by anybody.
For people who have known me for a very long time, I used to do that in church when I started.
Like, when I was in secondary school that was my style even on the assembly ground that was how I always do my presentation, it was always my keyboard and my maximal stand. So, as at then, I don’t even know much about social media I was just doing my own thing.
It wasn’t like I was inspired by anybody, I just wanted to challenge myself to do something different. I want to be different.
But for me as at then, I was doing it for fun and just for the service of God, until God actually spoke to me that I should maintain that style, so it wasn’t that I wanted to be like somebody else or something, it was just me being myself and not trying to be like any other person.