After three decades on stage, Stella Monye is not resting on her oars. The singer who is popularly known as Samba Queen has a lot up her sleeves. She is planning to drop an album as well as organise the WHIN Concert featuring juju maestro, King Sunny Ade. Stella opened up on why she’s involved. Excerpts:
After 30 years on stage, you are coming up with a new project, WHIN. What exactly is WHIN?
WHIN means Women Help Initiative Nigeria. It is a non-governmental organization that I founded when a teenage girl abandoned her one-week-old female child in front of the gate of my house. I took up the matter and resettled mother and child. Since then, I have done programmes like 1000 Mics recruiting female singers for charity work and the HUK (Harvest of the Unique Knowledge) UP show, a monthly live show that showcased very talented female singers that did not have a break.
Tell us more about the WHIN concert that is taking place today?
Yes, it was supposed to take place this weekend but it has been put on hold for obvious reasons.
I think it was grossly misunderstood, the aim and the objective was totally mixed up. Some think it’s a moneymaking venture while some think it’s just about coming to dance to Sunny Ade’s beat. It is far more than that. When in January some people came together and decided to celebrate my 30 years on stage, not many people knew that I have contributed nationally and internationally to boost Nigeria’s image. While other artistes were enjoying fame and money, I was seriously engaged in representation of Nigeria outside the country. I must say though that I am grateful to God for choosing me among many to do this job. I would have loved to drop albums every six months as a good songwriter and producer with good listening ears but God gave me another responsibility completely. I am happy to say that I have the support of most of my colleagues for this project and that is a plus for the WHIN concert.
Is WHIN a continuation of your 3 Decades on Stage programme?
I made it clear from the beginning that the WHIN project was more important to me and will be part of the activities lined up for the three decades on stage celebration, I am a thorough person, I like my things thoroughly done, as you are aware, the ‘3 Decades on Stage’ celebration took place at the magnificent Bespoke Center, Lekki, Ajah, Lagos and it was a full house boasting of de creme de la creme of the society in attendance. It was awesome. Another of my senior colleague was also celebrating his 50 years on stage on the Lagos Mainland the same day but I still had my own crowd and I thank God for it. Even the new generation artistes are involved in the WHIN concert arrangements.
Do you have any regret postponing the show?
WHIN itself is a process and a dream with the main objective of having a WHIN Center that will cater mainly for women and some other serious issues plaguing people in our society. The main idea of having the WHIN concert is to sensitize the public and to drum up support of any kind from the larger society. I was going to bring people together, tell them about this project through beautiful music, which is my first constituency but I had challenges that framed me to have a first-class music concert like no one has done in Nigeria before. I want those who have already been invited to hold on, I am going back inside to bring out the very best of me that they have never seen before. Even though, the show is meant for the WHIN vision, I am also using that platform to showcase the real stage players, those who can hold you spellbound with their music and stagecraft. Don’t forget that I also have the Indian International Dance Group coming to add colour to the occasion, that in itself is enough to hold the audience spellbound. I have no regrets holding back the show, it is for the best, after 30 years on stage anything I touch should be world-class and with my experience in event planning, I should be able to thumb my chest and say ‘yes I did it’. No one knows about my wealth of experience in event planning, very soon I shall unfold that part of me.
What do you hope to achieve with the WHIN project?
I am going to have a WHIN Center that will out-live me because it’s not about me, it is about the positive influence it will have on the society at large. We came up with the idea of the Women Help Initiative Nigeria (WHIN) because of some very grueling experiences that I had, I am going to tell you a few of them. As a growing child in my era, everywhere you turned, a baby or two was being dumped in a canal, it was so rampant that everyday we looked forward to discovering a new child that had been dumped so much so that we would first of all check the canal before going to school. To us as children, it was exciting even though sad. I remember some people would curse and curse the mothers of those children, but now looking back, I want to ask myself why? Why was it so rampant? I had a child as a teenager and I don’t think I would have had guts to throw the little infant inside the canal despite all the aggression I suffered in the hands of my dad who wanted the best for me. Not because a child is not a blessing but because he believed everything has its own time, so when such mistakes are made, you are made to live with it, such was the experience in my own case.
So, the whole idea came from your experiences as a teenage mother?
I’ll tell you another instance. After a long time while I was working as a social service worker at an Apapa-based faith NGO. One afternoon I was standing near the fence and there came this infant child, water was rolling him towards the fence, of course the child was dead. He had a wrapper wrapped round him. Apparently our office was at the back of the ocean so in the afternoon, I would take a stroll to the fence over-looking the water so I could have a glimpse of what the naval boats were doing. That day, I wept profusely and then all the memories of all the other incidents came rushing into my head.
Three years ago, when I stopped working as a social service worker after seven years of active NGO work, I was in my penthouse studio when my attention was called to another child that was dumped in front of the gate of the building. I quickly went downstairs and there was this gorgeous little girl in a basket, the sun was scorching hot. The first thing that came to my mind was to take the child to the Little Saints Orphanage but then we were able to find out through an eye-witness the teenage girl that dumped the child. We investigated and found out that she was in the neighborhood; then we took it up from there. To God’s glory, we traced her, resettled her, and offered her counsel and assistance to the best of our ability.
This is wonderful…?
(Cuts in) Now, I am going to tell you one last story. I was in the studio one night and I started to hear some noise, the noise was coming from downstairs so I came out to the balcony putting the light off. There were four young boys and a girl, their ages must be between 20 and 25. Apparently, they’ve been raping the girl, so at 4am, she told them she was going to ease herself and escaped. They discovered and ran after her and caught up with her, an argument then ensued. It was from the argument that I discovered they have been raping her for several hours. There are many other things that I will tell you about WHIN but I will do that as the event unfolds.
Are you sure your involvement in this project will not affect your musical career?
They are both two different things. My musical career is my musical career, and I am about to release a new single entitled, Together. So, my next plan is the release of the album and the re-packaging of the WHIN concert.
Culled: sunnewsonline
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