Niniola Apata, a Nigerian singer has said her hit song, ‘Maradona’, changed her life to be who she is today.
The songwriter revealed this in an interview on VJ Adam’s Off -The-Top reality TV show.
The Ondo-born musician attributed her success to God’s intervention. According to her, she did not know anybody in the Nigerian music industry. All she did was searched for names of successful producer and pick one of them to produce her first song titled Ibadi.
She said: “Preparation meets opportunity, To be honest. It just happened”,
“It’s the grace of God but as they say, when hard work and preparation meets opportunity, it just happens. After Project Fame, I just wanted to prove myself. I knew I could sing but I just wanted more. I loved to dance and wanted to incorporate these two things.
“I didn’t know anybody in the industry. So, I went online in search for the best producer in Nigeria. This was in 2013. Sarz’s name kept coming up. I reached out to him and he requested that I give him a hit song. I dropped “Ibadi” and that’s how it happened.
“One song changed my life. I just did the song Maradona and knew that, like every other ones, it was good. But when we dropped it, it went boom. People and artistes from South Africa started reaching out to me.”
Niniola rose to recognition in 2013 after finishing third runner-up on the sixth season of MTN’s Project Fame West Africa.
Upon the release of her breakthrough debut single “Ibadi”, Niniola was nominated in the “Most Promising Act to Watch” category at the 2015 Nigeria Entertainment Awards.
Niniola who describes her style of music as “Afro-House”, a blend of afrobeat and house music is currently signed to Drumroll Records.
