Singer Uwale Okoro, aka Essence, claims that, contrary to popular belief, she has never quit the music profession.
“I am a skilled theatre artist,” she stated in an interview. I recently appeared in a short film. On my 40th birthday four years ago, I published an album called ‘The Shift.’ I now just sing gospel songs. Last Christmas, I released ‘Christmas Oyoyo,’ a song and a video to one of my songs. I am currently working on a new single titled, ‘Mighty God’. I never left the music industry. I only took a little hiatus.”
On the issue of male artistes doing better than their female counterparts in the industry, Essence said, “The more time one spends in the industry, the more one becomes in tune with oneself as an artiste. As females, we don’t really hang out, except when we are promoting our songs. Our male counterparts love to go out and meet up with their fellow guys. They are like night crawlers because that is what the job calls for. But females cannot do much of that. We have the home and family (to attend to). We just try to balance everything out. When we (female singers) see each other, I believe we are cordial but we don’t see often, neither do we have one place where we congregate.”
On how she feels that the industry is presently experiencing a bigger boom compared to her hey days. She said, “The thing about life is that some people have to be pioneers and prepare the way for others. There is a huge export of our talents. Also, there are huge platforms for streaming, unlike before when we only had Alaba (international market). These days, artistes can promote their songs themselves. However, I enjoyed my time and I thank God for that.”