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Tag: TY Bello

  • I wrote ‘Greenland’ during the darkest days of my life – TY Bello confesses

    I wrote ‘Greenland’ during the darkest days of my life – TY Bello confesses

    Nigerian singer, Toyin Sokefun-Bello better known as TY Bello has opened up about the inspiration behind her hit song ‘Greenland.’

    The songstress during a recent Instagram post disclosed that she was facing one of the most challenging times in her life when the inspiration of the song came to her.

    It would be recalled that, ‘Greenland’ was released in 2008 as part of TY Bello’s debut album with the same title.

    Contrary to popular interpretations that “Greenland” represents Nigeria’s potential as a fertile land, the photographer explained that after marrying and returning from a six-month residency with the South London Gallery, she encountered discouragement from people.

    “I wrote ‘Greenland’ on one of the darkest days of my life,” she confessed in a recent Instagram post.

    The songstress further stressed that it was during the moment of despair while driving across the Third Mainland Bridge that the lyrics of ‘Greenland’ came to her.

    “As I was going home, heading towards the Third Mainland Bridge, everywhere looked dry. It looked like there was no green, no opportunity for me, that my idea was dead on arrival. So as I looked around me, I could not see an opportunity and this song came to me. I then sang it over and over, the more I sang it the more my spirit lifted,” she said.

    “After that, I forgot the song for two weeks. I kept telling everyone I wrote this song about green and I can not remember it. Then one day after prayer, the song came back.

    “I stood in the rain as the clouds went grey. I got this pic of that chaos that unleashed just before heavy rain. Everything is everywhere, the clouds are grey, and everything is dark. It did not look like a promise and it was God saying when it gets dark don’t get scared because my heavens are open to bless you.

    “…I know there is no way on earth I could have written this song. Everything came to me in verses 1, 2, chorus, and bridge without me having to think about it or try to be creative. Because those were words I needed to put on my mouth to encourage me when I was starting something that seemed impossible.

    “I did not have the finance, support, the right people yet I had a dream. Looking back now, I am realising that by next year this will have been 20 years ago and the truth is that I still maintain that the land is green. Not because I have it easy, flawless, and effortless but because God is the God of harvest. So when I sow in prayer I must reap in answers, when I sow in tears, I must reap in joy.”

  • Why I went to university – TY Bello

    Why I went to university – TY Bello

    Nigerian singer and photographer, Toyin Sokefun-Bello, aka TY Bello, has said she had a university education just to please her mum.

    The minstrel said her plan was to become a “big hairstylist” after graduation, adding that she has always been creative as far back as she can remember.

    She said she started writing songs at the age of 8.

    The ‘Land is Green crooner stated this while featuring as a guest on the latest episode of I Said What I Said podcast, co-hosted by FK and Jola.

    She said she started photography and music almost at the same time.

    TY Bello said, “I have been writing songs since I was 8, 9, 10. I started music and photography [professionally] right at the same time.

    “After university, when everyone in my class knew where they wanted to work. And I had no such dream. I was very confused.

    “University was that period where I thought, ‘okay, let me go to school to make my mum happy. Then I was going to graduate to be a big hairstylist.’ I thought that was my future.

    “When it came to NYSC and everybody asked where to be posted to, I asked to be posted to the south. I was like, what do I do? And I think that was the major turning point where I realised that I had to be posted to phototech because I just started photography.

    “It wasn’t like I wanted to be a photographer all my life, but that one move made me who I am today.”

  • I felt it was my fault when I was sexually abused –TY Bello

    Acclaimed photographer and gospel singer, TY Bello shocked many of her fans when she opened up on how she was sexually abused at the age of seven.
    The svelte mother of twins stated that she only found solace in her relationship with God.
    According to her: “I remember how the silence I had to keep after the abuse slowly killed me .. I also remember the relief I found in my relationship God so early .That really was my rescue ..yet for decades I could never find my voice on the matter .. I was still afraid ..Mostly because I felt it may have been the fault of my seven year old self ..somehow.. Fast forward .. almost thirty years later ..I knew better .. and was ‘big’ enough .. I understood the importance of stepping up when it was time to share my story .. and ..I did in my @kemiadetiba ‘s #kingwomen interview .. it surprised me however,how hard it was to talk about sexual abuse after so many years .. but it was such a relief ..But soon after came the resistance ..
    “In sharing ..I faintly began tasting the shame again .. that same feeling of naked ‘dirtiness ‘’ I had as a child .. it hadn’t completely gone away .It also became clear .. that real stories of sexual abuse still sounded like NOVELTY.. I saw headline after headline .. even in broken English .. this my ‘confession ‘.that ‘ Dem ‘SPOIL ‘ me when I be small pikin’.. It didn’t feel good that it was so ‘sensational’ as I was aware of how massive a plague this was ..WE CLEARLY ARE NOT TALKING ENOUGH ..too many children sexually abused .. too many sex crimes ..especially now .. right under our noses .
     
    “I had to push past the inner conflict that talking about it was ‘unnecessary’ … it was too long ago ..too ‘Oyinboish ‘to discuss publicly .. ‘. ‘Then of course ..that talking about it now would make it seem like my family failed me as a child .. but they didn’t .. and could never have known .. I had mastered SILENCE !they were victims too.
    Every abuse story is different but it is SHAME that makes them complicated..
    Sadly , the shame hardly lies with the perpetrators .. So I’ve learnt that it’s time to nail shame right where it belongs ..Far away from the wronged .. Bringing them instead to healing ,justice and freedom.
     
     
    https://www.instagram.com/p/BzWdQHKB_kx/?utm_source=ig_embed
    “We must teach ever child the power of their voices ,,Apparently ,we must teach adults too … and more importantly we must learn to listen .. understand and know that Sex is not a dirty word .. but DENIAL is”.
     
    TheNewsGuru recalls that female celebrities like Adesua Etomi, Wunmi Toriola and Wofaifada have shared their sexual assault stories ever since Busola Dakolo alleged that she was raped by Biodun Fatoyinbo, the senior pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly.
     
     

  • ‘I was sexually abused as a child’-TY Bello

    ‘I was sexually abused as a child’-TY Bello

    Popular Nigerian singer and photographer, TY Bello recently opened up on a dark part of her past that people hardly know about her. Speaking on Accelerate TV Series tagged King Women, she revealed that she was molested as a child and that it had a destructive effect on her ,during her formative years as a child.

    In her words:”I was sexually abused as a child and because of this, I felt like there was something ugly about me that made me encounter this. This was not the abuser’s fault, this was me. I used to see other girls as flowers and I saw myself as dirty cement, hard and ugly. I never felt beautiful, everything was wrong with me, I was hairy and it was a problem.

     

    “I always attributed everything that was about me to be the reason someone took advantage of me. I thought there was something wrong with me because if the others girls were like me perhaps they would be dirty like me but they were flowers.

     

    “When a friend told me about salvation, she told me old things would be passed away and all things will become new. It was as if God could wash away that stench and I would become a girl because I didn’t feel like a girl.”

     

    The soft spoken singer said she was shocked when she found out that one out of every three or four girls in her secondary school had suffered same experience.

    “I was shocked when I grew up and found that one out every three or four girls in my secondary school had suffered the same thing and I could tell them the same thing… that old thing can pass away.

     

    “It was a relief to find that I was not the only one and a shock that nobody talks about it. That’s why salvation worked, I had a daddy and I was going to be a flower.”

    Watch the rest of the interview here