An award-winning recording artiste, radio & TV host, entrepreneur, and humanitarian; Nikki Laoye isn’t your regular musician.

The proud mother of four is a woman of many parts and one who wears many hats. Despite being a multi-faceted figure, she has continued to blaze the trail in every aspect.

Eclectic is how she describes her style of music, and you can’t agree less. It takes a lot to be different, and Nikki Laoye has never shied away from it.

Talk about a heart of gold—she embodies it, her care for children with cancer and cerebral palsy is all the proof you need.


From “Never Felt This Way Before”, an alternative rock gospel song that made listeners feel what they’ve never felt before, to “Trust You,” and even “Yeshua” Nikki has “Never fail(ed)” to deliver.

There have been storms that rocked her boat, but she stands unwaveringly strong. Eighteen years and counting, and the ‘Best Female Vocal Performance’ winner at the 2013 Headies shines still, even ever brighter.

In this interview with CRISPNG’s BLESSING CHUKWUNEKE, the royal nightingale, Nikki Laoye speaks of her musical journey as an urban contemporary gospel artist, her philanthropy, her breaking points, her losses, and also counts her blessings.

Can we meet you?

I am Oyenike ‘Nikki’ Laoye. I am a recording artist, humanitarian, radio and TV host, and founder of the Angel for Life Foundation. Additionally, I’m a beauty entrepreneur, running my haircare line, Fine Woman by Nikki Laoye.

Tell us about your background and how it shaped your music career

My beginning was more musical, in the sense that I grew up in a musical family coming from the Laoye Ajeniju royal family in Ede, Osun state.

My family is well-known as one of the royal families in Osun state. My granduncle, my grandfather’s brother, was Oba Toyeshe Laoye, while my grandfather was known as Baba Kekere, and was more like the Oba’s right-hand man, but the two of them were both musical.

My grandfather used to play the organ and keyboard, while my granduncle was also known as the drummer King because he played the talking drum.

Oba Laoye made the talking drum as popular as it is today. During Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Nigeria, he welcomed her with the talking drum, and right now, the talking drum industry pays homage to him. It has opened many doors for me because when I go to places and I mention that I’m Laoye, people want to prostrate to me in appreciation of Oba Laoye. That’s how amazing it is.

So, coming from a family that had music in its bones, I grew up watching my dad and his brothers always playing music, always singing together. I would hear them singing in harmonies, in parts.

Growing up as a family, we were all very close. My dad and his brothers always made sure that once a year, we came together to go away on holiday. Our cousins and friends were always present.

My cousin is the popular actress, Ade Laoye, and we all used to sing together and hang out. So we just grew up in the creative system. So, everybody in the Laoye family is very creative. They either sing, dance, act, draw, or do other things in creative space. However, some of us took it to the next level.

While growing up, my dad had a vast music collection. My dad always had music, all kinds of albums, all kinds of recordings. So, I was open to different kinds of music as a child from R&B, Hip Hop, to Reggae and jazz. My mum was a dancer and it added to my music experience.

Growing up, I decided to do music fully, which was a path I built since childhood. I made sure that every time from my primary to secondary school, no matter what school I found myself in, I was always either in the dance club, Atilogu class, or acting class. I was always in every kind of thing that has to do with music and art as a child and it gave me room to blossom and grow in that direction.

When I was at the University of Ibadan, I also joined a group called Exclussia, which was the top dance club at the University of Ibadan at that time. I soon started a girl group called soul sisters with two of my friends, Aboyowa and Debola Kester and we were popular at the University of Ibadan because we were the only female acapella group at that time, which was in the early 2000s, between 2002 and 2004. That was also the stepping stone to me becoming a recording artist because. Soul Sisters recorded a couple of singles. One of our singles, “Babaloke” was featured on my first album. So that was more or less what helped me to grow into the recording artist I am today.

My younger brother, our last born known as Xblaze is also a well-known producer and has been producing for over 20 years. So it was the two of us that decided to go into music fully. My eldest brother, Femi Laoye, who’s also known as Rap2sai, actually featured on Taka Sufe, one of my songs in my first album, alongside Rooftop MCs. While Xblaze produced the song. So, that shows how much everybody in my family has that gift of music and we all use it in different ways. Xblaze right now, works with DJs in Albania in the UK.

Also, doing music in the church helped me. My parents saw my love for music and put me in a choir at age five, an adult choir at that. So the truth is, I’ve just been in that space of being able to work on my music since I was a kid and I thank my parents for that.

How would you describe your style of music?

Nikki is so versatile. I can do any style of music. Like I said, there’s no style of music my parents did not have around them, from R&B, Soul, Hip Hop, Reggae, Funk, whatever it is, I can do all of them, but it always just depends on when I’m writing a song. I try to ask myself which genre or what style of music will best express that song. That’s why my songs have different genres. I would say I’m eclectic in my style of music, I like to call myself an urban contemporary gospel artist because I can do all kinds of styles, but the major theme of my music is God, love and life because I believe that those are three major areas that every human being would need to handle or deal with.

Read more: https://crispng.com/trailblazers-corner-we-suffered-to-make-gospel-music-what-it-is-today-nikki-laoye/