She finished her tour in the UK last week. We met again in London and chatted at a Boiler Room event as a fan walks by “Oh my God, you are Lady Donli right? I was at your show last night and you killed it. I loved every bit of it”. I hadn’t seen this show but have seen her perform at Art X Live, last November where she put the stage on fire. I don’t know what she did, but she gave it her all and the room was following her lead. Well, I do know what it was; it was her banger ‘Addicted to cash’, the track that put this young girl from Abuja the spotlight.
Photographer Coco Olakunle and I meet Donli in Lagos, a few days after her performance at Art X Live. “Everyone wants to make money” is what Lady Donli replies when I ask her about the title. “It’s literally just about the millennial struggle”. She talks about youngsters going to work every day, people approach her and tell her they love the song because it inspires them to work harder. “Everybody is addicted to cash…”
“You can tell I’m from Abuja, Lagos people are bubbly, I’m so chilled and calm”
She’s from Abuja Lady Donli is from Abuja, she studied in Britain and recently moved down to Lagos. “I recorded cash in Lagos and made cash in Lagos. There is this drive here that is overwhelming. Everyone is constantly moving; morning, evening and even on public holidays”. Lagos felt like a logical step to make as an artist “I grew up in Abuja but there is not much of a scene in Abuja…” She continues “…I mean the industry and the people are here. From here [Lagos] it can spread to the rest of Nigeria, to Africa and to the world”. Although she spends time in the most energetic city on the continent “You can tell I’m from Abuja, Lagos people are bubbly, I’m so chilled and calm”. Abuja is also part of her dna as an artist; Abuja is more conservative than Lagos “Abuja influences me in a way that, I wouldn’t say I’m conservative, but I’m mellow”. Mellow is the vibe I get when I look at the fine piece of art on her album cover. A 70s inspired look where she sits on the floor, facing the camera while holding a small TV with a vase on top. She co-directed the shoot. We mainly know her as a singer and songwriter but she prefers to refer to herself as an all round creative because she touches upon more disciplines like visual direction or writing, in poetry, art or stories. “I’m impressive I think”.
With a 70s funk
Though she might be young, her style of work feels like it’s made by someone with an older spirit “I’m really inspired by the 70s, 80s and 90s”. In today’s digital age it’s easy to fine tune sounds and looks “but I always look back at the times when we couldn’t. So I treat my songs as vinyl records”. The art that comes with the music is important to her, she wants us to see her covers and be intrigued, to use them to spark curiosity. “…and I like sounds that come from before, for me to go further, I have to look at the past”. When we talk about inspiration for sound and style she comes up with a long list of African artists from the 70s till the early 2000s “The Funkees, StylPlus.”. And the list continues. But don’t get it twisted; the past two weeks she had Sno Alegra’s album on repeat...
The album ‘Enjoy your life’ is inspired by musician Oby Onyioha, an artist that talked about enjoyment a lot. “Her music launched me into this new scene, into the funk and rock music coming from Nigeria”. Donli soon realized she liked a lot of songs that were about enjoyment and got inspired by the song ‘Enjoy yourself’ by the Sahara Allstar band from Jos. “I want to create nostalgia about enjoyment. Life is complex, we are addicted to cash. I want to take people back to these times of enjoyment”.
A woman amongst the men
The music industry is a male dominated industry, also in Nigeria. Within that context Lady Donli is a female artist that brings out bold lyrics “A lot of people are taken a back by me and I like it”, she’s happy with the initial response “I don’t want people to think they can silence me or let me do things by force because I’m a woman. I therefore approach things with confidence”. Donli emphasizes that confidence doesn’t come from a place of pride, but from a place of understanding; about who she is and can be “I see myself in this male dominated industry as someone that can open doors for people like me, for girls, for women like me”. She wants to break the code, and put as many women on as she can “because that’s how you build an industry, one that represents women''.
“I need to control the narrative as much as I can.”
“People feature men on their album, on mine there are predominant female artists on it”. It’s a conversation starter, at every interview she gets question about it “and in my mind I’m always thinking; if I was a man who only had male artists on the album you wouldn’t be asking the same question.” People don’t even ask if she’s a feminist, they just assume she’s one “They think I’m an aggressive one. But it’s my personality as well, I’m very stubborn”. She got it from her mother “when my mum walks into a room, men and women just listen to her. That’s what I want to achieve as well…” She wears the label with pride on her chest.
A pan-African
“I refer to myself as pan-African in terms of that I believe in unity. And it has influenced my music and the way I dress”. Donli explains that she wears Africa-made and designed clothes mainly; to her it’s all about putting fellow Africans on. When we meet her her hair is locked, with cowries in them. She’s dressed in a black leather gilet and a legging. He has the album cover ‘Enjoy your life’ tattooed on her arm. “Everywhere I go it’s Rasta, Rasta Rasta’. It’s her third year of having locks and she has never felt as much herself as she does now. “I think it also gives me a level of boldness, if you’re constantly in places where people call you out, you’ll be like yeah, I’m going to own it, this is who I am and what I am and what I look like”. Style is important to her “If you see me and you think I look interesting, you are more likely to check out my music”.
Media and the internet
Lady Donli is an artist of this generation; a young woman that grew up with the internet and used it to her benefit. When she was starting she put a lot of her music on Soundcloud, “I got a lot of messages from places like Toyko and LA. Even before people in Nigeria were listening to my music”. Because of these platforms people from outside Nigeria were able to listen to her music. "I can’t imagine what it would be like without that, probably the label would be more important”.
She talks about the speed with which one can blow up today “I’m thankful for those platforms because it’s a new audience, it makes it easier for people to come across music”. Her first listeners were people (diaspora) in Europe and the States but she has a good fanbase in Nigeria too by now. People recognize her in the streets and greet her, also during our interview. “Media helps to spread and connect. I can have loner fans in a city, talking to their friends but if they’ve never heard of me or seen me… but if they see me on a publication it might help and it can spark their interest”.
