Banky
W is a renowned name in R&B industry now, but he wasn’t always
among the best. There was a time the songwriter-singer was broke,
struggling and unsure of success.
Read the most interesting facts of Banky W has revealed in the latest interview:
“Everybody knows me to be the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of EME, but what people do not know is that EME started when I was in my third year in university in New York.
You see, we all dream dreams, but it is important to think very big and start where you are because God never gives you everything but gives you enough to start.
At that time, I knew I wanted to do music, but of course I understood nobody starts by selling a million CDs or the big screen!
I worked in fast foods outlets, clothing stores and as a knife salesman, selling knives from door to door. That way, I gathered money to pay for studio recording time. I was recording with a close friend at that time.
After making that music, we printed a thousand CDs though we didn’t have any fan.
I had one battered car that broke down virtually everywhere, so, we
would print black and white posters, stick them on the sides of the car,
sell from the car’s trunk and drive to salons to do marketing.
We
would walk to the owners of the salons, greet politely, and ask them to
let us entertain their customers. Sometimes, some would kick us out and
sometimes some would say yes. If told yes, after singing for a minute or two, we would sell our CDs to the customers! That was the beginning!
A
lot of people see you on stage and see the success but do not know what
you had to go through! I never had one really big break; it was always
two steps forward and a couple backwards.
But
I just decided that I was going to make music work for me. That was why
I moved on to a new salon each time any salon rejected me!
I just kept going because I believe failure is when you give up.
Albert Einstein said he tried a hundred times to make the light bulb.
When he was asked what kept him going during the 99 times, he said: ‘I
didn’t consider those 99 times as failure; rather, I considered them 99
ways that it didn’t work!’
We
went about selling CDs and, on the days we couldn’t sell much, we would
sit down and be broke together. I remember my friend was a member of a
church that usually served food after service. So, on the days
we didn’t sell CDs and were too broke to buy food, we would attend
service in that church so we could pack rice and store in the fridge.
At
a point, being a student of industrial engineering, I was working for
an engineering company and was recording as well. I would go to work
from 7am till about 2pm and then go to school till about 8pm, and then
drive two and a half hours to New York City where the studio that would
let us record for less was, and record until about 2am.
I would then drive two and a half hours back home to be back at work at 7am the following day.
One day, I was driving home from work and was so tired that I fell asleep while on a bridge. I would have driven off from the top of the bridge to God knows where, if not for an on-going construction work. God really saved me!”
After
a while, Banky’s hard work began to pay off and, even while in school,
he began winning awards, beginning with the ‘Albany Idol’ competition.
Other international awards soon followed.
In
2008 when he decided to move to Nigeria after the completion of one of
his albums, Mr Capable, Banky was consistently told his genre of music
‘would never appeal to Nigerians and therefore wouldn’t ‘sell’.
As
he got turned down, pressure mounted on him and his manager to change
their genre of music but Banky strongly held on to another long-standing
principle which had taught him to stand out by being unique rather than
trying to imitate anyone’s skill.
He
therefore insisted on sticking to R&B, and this paid-off as he soon
became a household name in the Nigerian entertainment industry!
Banky W advice to Readers and Fans:
“You
cannot say enough about the grace of God and I therefore do not want to
claim any form of glory. Falling down is inevitable but getting back up
is optional!
Frankly,
you can’t appreciate sunshine if you’ve never been through a heavy
rain. Yes, life is tough, but what do you do in those tough moments?
Do
you learn the lesson, stand up again, consider yourself stronger and
keep going? Or do you sit down and feel sorry for yourself?
The
graveyard, they say, is the richest place in the world because therein
lies so many who died with their dreams. So, my advice is, do not give
up! If Banky can be where he is today, you can be where you want to be
if you put to mind to it.”
He’s Not No. 1:
This is the first year that Putin carries the crown. Obama has been on
the top of the list for every year with the exception of 2010, when Hu
Jintao, the former political and military leader of China, was No. 1.
Nigerian pop star Ayo Balogun popularly known as Wizkid never gets tired of flaunting his gorgeous girlfriend, Tania Omotayo.
