Music star Augustine Kelechi, popularly known as Tekno, has revealed the stigma he experienced while battling severe vocal cord damage caused by acid reflux, a condition that affected his voice and contributed to a decline in his career.
Recalls that Tekno, at the peak of his fame in 2018-2021, suffered severe vocal cord damage, during which he couldn’t sing and was forced into a multi-year hiatus, which disrupted his momentum.
Narrating his ordeal in a recent interview with Cool FM Lagos, Tekno said during his struggle with vocal cord disease, he “hated” music and was only forcing himself to make music occasionally because of his recording deal yet the people around him labelled him “lazy” for slowing down the pace of his work.
He, however, admitted that he initially kept his ailment secret even from closed ones and team members.
He said this led to his team thinking he was being lazy about making music or performing during the period he was battling severe vocal cord damage.
“Even the people closest to me were saying that ‘he is just lazy. He doesn’t want to perform..’. I was in a very dark place. Even after I recovered, I hated music. I didn’t want to hear music for a long time. I was only forcing myself to do music because I had a deal with Universal.” The singer said.
Tekno mentioned that reading inspirational books made him healed emotionally and reconnected with music.