MY AMAZING VICTORY
The hypnotic appeal of watching the
winner of Glo X-Factor 2013, Obianuju
Catherine Udeh, popularly known as DJ
Switch, speaking with passion about her
heartfelt dreams is both captivating and
instructive. It reveals years and studious
efforts spent preparing for this kind of big
prize, writes Lanre Alfred
There is a lot about DJ Switch that really
steals under your skin at your first
encounter with her: she is self-assured and
yet not given to flightiness. She has the gift
of enabling you to explore yourself many
times over. In a more romantic era, she
would have been a painter's delight, with
her striking persona and exuberance. She's
not just another pretty face, but soon her
face will be everywhere you look. Thanks to
Globacom. DJ Switch’s spiritedness
however, doesn't emerge out of nowhere.
It is formed and defined with experience
and time.
There is no denying that she methodically
takes that spirit, and combines it with a
clinical approach to life. She personalizes
that spirit and creates a worthy disposition
and personal cultural ethic out of it. And
what makes up that spirit? Ethics, passion,
creativity, freedom, the willingness to take
risks.
Udeh is a young woman who has done
things her own way and still loves to do it
her own way, standing completely and
absolutely by the values she believes in.
Expectedly, she beamed and relished the
honour with decent abandon that you
could feel and grab the rapture of victory.
Initially, you could easily notice the
trepidation of the contestants but when the
winner was announced, the display of joy
was infectious.
‘My Victory Proves God Answers Prayers’
“I’m short of words. I don’t know really, I
never thought I would win. It was amazing.
And this victory has proved to me that God
answers prayers,” she said. Looking directly
into her mother's eyes from the stage with
a repentant demeanour, she preceded her
performance at the final with apologies to a
mother she had not seen "for about a year.
I have been away from home pursuing
music. Mummy, I'm so sorry. I promise to do
you proudly this evening," she profusely
begged her visibly elated mother to
understand what passion has turned her
into. Only passion and nothing else could
have taken a sane mind from a well paying
job at Halliburton. Clearly, nothing as simple
as talent, determination and God’s grace or
any ordinary combination of these qualities
could excite the X-Factor winner with such
requisite much as she affects in her ‘X-
hilaration’ over her new status. “I’m now
glowing”, she said.
How She Adopted Stage Name DJ Switch
Nobody knows DJ Switch more than herself.
Born 29 years ago, Obianuju adopted the
stage name DJ Switch because of her
versatility and ability to switch from one
thing to another. She is a University of Port
Harcourt Geology graduate from Udi, Enugu
State, and is now a professional DJ. She
grew up in Warri, Delta State, but lives in
Abuja. Her father is late and she is the last
of eight children. “I have my trust in God. I
believe everything happens the way it is
meant to be and I am confident,” she
enthused. She bears deportment and ethical
fibre characteristic of a very few aged and
well-heeled artistes. That is what makes her
different and seemingly defiant of every
artistic stereotype arbitrarily foisted on
most of her peers.
Flaunting a rich and undeniably compelling
occidental drawl, she enthused about her
professional dreams, projecting among
other things, that boundless optimism and
vivacity that are at once necessary armours
against the daunting blows of fate.
Such buoyancy and depth no doubt, are
resultant from the rich medley of her
enviable background, education, exposure
and open-mindedness.
Curiously, however, when DJ Switch put in
her application at the just wrapped up ‘Glo
X-Factor,’ little did she know that luck was
lurking somewhere around the corner
waiting to smile on her. With the sea of
heads, which thronged the different
regional venues of auditions for the world’s
number one music singing talent reality
television show, which berthed in Africa for
the first time courtesy of Globacom, even
the most courageous of men would have
their bravery shaken with the sight of the
mammoth crowd.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/glo-x-factor-winner-dj-switch-/159616/