Artist: Ibiyemi
Ibiyemi is a singer, songwriter with a particular love for soul music. She was born on the 22nd of May 1981 in SanFrancisco, California to the Ajakaiye family of Kogi state in Northern Nigeria.
Like many soul artistes before her, Ibiyemi’s love affair with music took off with singing in a church choir. A short spell with the Original love choir of Yabatech paved the way. In 2000 she joined the prestigious Chosen treasure choir of the House on the Rock Church, Lagos. From then on to Tehilah Company, another choir of the House on the rock church, this time located in Abuja.
By 2003 Ibiyemi had begun doing back-up vocals for other artistes on stage and in the studio while writing some of the songs that would come to be her first recordings as a solo artiste.
On the 4th of July 2004 she made her first major solo performance singing the national anthem at the 228th independence ceremony of the United States, organised
by the US mission in Nigeria. That became the first of many such performances.
In time she became the preferred solo artiste at top government functions. Most noteworthy of these was the rendition of the national anthem at the historic Presidential Inaugral ceremony in May of 2007. In a bid to deepen the love affair, she extended her passion to live music and embraced the stage becoming the the lead vocalist in a high profile band which saw her thrilling audiences three nights a week with beautiful renditions of timeless classics at the Le’meridien Hotel Abuja for over a year.
In 2006 her first single ‘Can You Love Me’ hit the airwaves in Abuja rising to number one within weeks, thus beginning a new chapter in the love story.
She returned to the studio to record the rest of her debut album aptly titled ‘Love Always Wins’ while thrilling audiences around the country with her performances of the hit singles ‘Can you love me’ and ‘Don't leave me’.
‘Can You love me’, her first single, has since been featured on the soundtrack to the November Movies production ‘Caught In the middle’ and has also been adopted as the Theme song For Alphavision Media’s Television soap opera production “168”.
Her highly anticipated album ‘Love always wins’ was realesd on 28th August 2010 and has garnered critical aclaim.
