| Tami, Fela’s
niece to toasters
Music now, marriage can wait
By
Tony Ogaga Erhariefe[ogaga@sunnewsonline.com]
Sunday,
March 9, 2008
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•Tami
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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Tamilore, daughter of Jazz icon, Fran Kuboye, has shared
the lessons she learned from her late mum with Sunday Sun
before she passed on at an unripe age in 1997.
In an exclusive chat, Tami, eldest daughter of Tunde and late
Fran Kuboye, described her mother as a great influence on
her life and a woman, who never encouraged waste: “She
never tolerated waste. Right from when we were kids, she made
sure that we finished our meals. She taught us to be neat
and hardworking.
One thing she always told me was that as a woman, I had to
assert myself. It is not all about being seen but also being
heard. She thought us to be go-getters.”
The nation had scarcely recovered from the death of her uncle,
the late Afrobeat maestro, Fela, when her mum died suddenly
in 1997.
She recounted the experience: “It’s still a shock
to me the way mum died suddenly. We saw her every day and
then suddenly, she was gone. It was the least I expected.
I was shocked but I couldn’t cry. I went straight home
after the news was broken to me in the hospital. I opened
the refrigerator, and saw her launch, which we had prepared
for her and I said, ‘mum, why did you have to die. Now
this food is going to waste. But I will not let it waste;
I ate it.”
According to her, “I was on auto-pilot. The tears came
later. We were all overwhelmed with the sheer shock of getting
used to the idea that our mum was gone and she was not coming
back. My dad stood by us all. He was wonderful. He tried to
fill the vacuum. Oh yes, he did his very best. He was a rock
and he acted as mum and dad to my siblings and me.
“Every single day, I miss her. I think of her in one
way or the other. It might be in a movie that we had seen
before or hearing a phrase that sounded like something she
could have said. It has been 11years she passed on but it
is still like yesterday. I keep wondering if it would be like
this in the next 15 years. But hey! She was my mother and
I loved her.”
At the time she was 16, going on 17. Her mum’s sudden
death made her vulnerable. “My mum passed on at a time
that I needed her most. I was growing into a woman and asking
questions about my body, then she died. However, my dad was
there for all of us.”
Music
Tami, along with her younger brother Baba, are walking in
the path of their parents. They are both making music. “I
am doing music for the passion I have for it. I have got so
much material; I decided to let it out. Definitely, my parents
were into music so that has impacted on us a great deal.”
Currently, she is a graduate of Law and studying for masters
in the UK. How is she combining Law and music?
“What does music want to do with a lawyer one may ask?
It has always been a part of who I am, what I have been and
what I will always be. Law just has to give way for music.
According to my dad, I started singing at the age of two.
I guess, music has always been a part of me. But the fact
that I was born into a music family also helped me.”
She plays a blend of R and B, but there are still influences
of jazz and Afro beat and soul in the music. She currently
has a single on air.
“The music scene in Nigeria is very competitive and
I think it is a good thing as long as it is positive and constructive.
It’s not a do or die affair. That is my personal belief.
We have so many great talents in this country. There are a
lot of people that I enjoy their performance.”
Love life
As a beauty queen, Tami is not short of toasters. This much
she told Sunday Sun: “If you say I have plenty of toasters,
I agree with you but I don’t keep track of them. I am
not saying I get them on a daily basis, I get quite a few.
I have never experienced love at first sight. If it happens,
I would be happy but I wonder how it would happen. How can
I see somebody and I just fall in love with him? It sounds
strange.
“Do I feel great when guys toast me? Not really. Every
girl has toasters. They are going to keep on toasting women.
I have quite a few of them that I admire but to be honest,
I don’t have time for admiration. I don’t even
have time for myself. There is so much to do and so little
time, I don’t even have time to catch my breath.
“Everybody keeps telling me that my beauty will fade,
which is the truth. But I believe I have so much more to offer
than my beauty. If you are toasting me because of my beauty,
then I don’t even want to be with you.”
Marriage
“It is not priority right now. I am not actively considering
it. I believe God has a plan for everyone. If it is not in
my mind right now, may be, it is not time for me to be married.
I am not in a hurry. I am married to my music for now.”
Ideal man
I am interested in the person’s character. The thing
that you look for is not what you always get. I like tall
guys. I am not particular about handsome guys because the
beauty will fade. I want somebody who can make me laugh, somebody
who will be my friend.
Maybe I have come across a couple of people that fit that
description but we went our different ways. We were going
in different directions. So right now, I don’t have
a boyfriend and I am not searching. It may be that I just
love my own company. I can happily sit down in my house without
looking for anybody.
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