How I Became Full-Time Musician– Yinka James Adonai
Nigeria’s fast rising Juju musician, Yinka James, popularly known as Adonai, has disclosed that the June 12, 1993 election annulment saga forced him to embrace music as his career.
He made the disclosure in Ibadan, on Tuesday, while speaking as the guest on a weekly radio ‘Ayekooto on Radio’, anchored by Olayinka Agboola.
Adonai said: “I never planned to become a musician professionally. I believe God just planned it like that in my life. You see, I was an instrumentalist in my mother’s church and when the June 12, 1993 presidential election was annulled, we rioted in our school and it was shut down forcing us to go home on compulsory break.
“Since we did not have an idea of when our school would be re-opened, I and my friends had to look for what we could do to sustain ourselves. I was lucky to be contacted to sing at an event.
“So, we went to honour the engagement and more outings started coming in for us as a group. Before I knew what was happening, I started buying musical equipment.
“Initially, my mother was not really happy that I was playing music. She was afraid of me dragging the family’s name in the mud. I made promises to her that I would not do anything to dent the image of our family.”
On his most embarrassing moment in the industry, Adonai said: “It was on a Sunday morning. I was billed to be on the band stand at an event that night but there was a heavy downpour that affected the arrangement of our musical instruments which delayed the commencement of our performance.
“Then, one of the friends of the celebrant approached me to ask why we were not ready with our equipment. While explaining to him, he angrily slapped me! I saw stars.
“This really angered the man who booked us to play for him. The celebrant apologised, even though I had been traumatized. But then, at the end of the day, I still mounted the stage to put up a brief performance.”
On his relationship with other musicians, Adonai said: “In Ibadan here, among the Association of Juju musicians (AJUM), I am one of the oldest youths in the association.
“We must all come together and there is need for co-operation in order to rid the industry of quacks, the music industry should be professionalised.”
Speaking on his greatest motivation and his breakthrough in the industry, Adonai said: “It was the day I was opportune to play alongside Sir Shina Peters in Eruwa, Oyo State.
“He played in the afternoon while I played in the night. Later, I realised that there was not much difference in the way we played because I was copying him; it was just like copy and paste.
“Since that day, I thought of being creative and to stand differently in order to create a big image for myself and family.”
