Femi Naija Heralds Nigeria Music Globally
Feminaija, also known as Adepoju Olufemi Adeleye, is a UK based Nigerian singer, songwriter, guitarist and medical director. His music is a rich blend ofAfrican folk, Soft Rock and Contemporary Soul, with lyrics in both English and his native language - Yoruba. Femi’s love for music started at a very young age. Being part of a somewhat musical family, as both parents were choir members in church, Femi quickly picked an interest in music. He spent most of his formative years as part of various choirs through Secondary school and University and was taught to play the Harmonica by his dad. He learnt to play the guitar much later in the university. He also grew up listening to a combination of old school Highlife, Afrobeat, Reggae and Country music which made up his father’s Vinyl collection with artistes like Ebenezer
Obey, King Sunny Ade, IK Dairo, Kenny rogers, Don Williams, Lucky Dude, Majek Fashek, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and so much more, all of whom formed his musical influences growing up.
It was while he was in Medical school he did his very first recording with Wole Oni (Instinct Productions), ‘Why and Orin Ogo’. Both songs were never released. He later recorded his first released single ‘ChaCha Naija’ with Sam Clef, which launched him professionally into the music scene (then known as Ari). This was when he signed with Thumbs up Records for three years.
During this period he regularly performed at Taruwa which held at Bogobiri, Starcomms Benefit Concert at the Vault NightClub Ikeja hosted by OMOBABA No 1, and also performed at the Hennessy Artistry DJ contest 2009.
After ‘Thumbs Up Records’, he was signed to ‘SQN Music’ where he recorded and performed his two songs, B’aye Molla and Desire. Femi has also performed at the Boat Club, Felabration 2015, OneMic Naija 2015, and so on. Femi is married with a beautiful daughter and in 2017 he relocated to the UK with his family. In 2019, he released his first EP, “Note2Self” which includes his recent singles; Ileri and Today.