Goodnight Sammie Okposo
The Nigerian entertainment industry was thrown into mourning yesterday following the demise of popular gospel singer, Sammie Okposo, aged 51. The news of his death ZDV FRQÀUPHG E\ KLV SURMHFW manager, Hillary Vincent via phone call. “Yes it’s true. It happened this morning,” Vincent was quoted to have said regarding the singer’s demise as he declined further comments.
However, sources claimed that Okposo slumped and was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Following the news of his death, fellow entertainers and gospel artistes and fans took to their social media accounts to pay tributes and mourn the late singer.
Sharing Okposo’s video on his Facebook page, fellow gospel singer, Tosin Bee, wrote, “Wow! Still can’t believe this. Just last night we were talking about reaching out to you today, that it’s time to release this project that you love so much.”
Okposo who was The ‘Wellu Wellu’ master, as he was fondly called, was an internationallyrecognised music producer, psalmist, and CEO of Zamar Entertainment. He started his music career as a soundtrack producer for Nollywood in 1992.
He was well-known at that time in the small circle of Nollywood actors and producers. He ODWHU EHJDQ WR JHW PRUH FDUHHU ÁDVKSRLQWV ZKHQ he started the Sammie Okposo Praise Party, a platform that brought many up-and-coming
Nigerian gospel artistes into the scene. The Niger Delta-born music star was known for emboldening the gospel music scene by taking his music away from WKH TXLHW FRQÀQHV RI WKH FKXUFK
He almost died after his concert in London on his way back to Lagos for a concert. He gave a testimony. That was just a few weeks ago. He released his ÀUVW DOEXP $GGLFWHG LQ 2NSRVR collaborated with many other artistes LQ WKH JRVSHO DQG VRXO PXVLF ÀHOGV
He collaborated with popular gospel singer Marvellous Odiete on “Follow You”, performed regularly in Africa, Europe, and North America, and curated a series of concerts called SOPP (Sammie Okposo Praise Party). Okposo’s most recent album, The Statement (2018), was produced by the Grammy-winning Kevin Bond.
Despite most of his international status, Okposo always demonstrated his Nigerian roots with his songs, 2NSRVR VDQJ LQ GLͿHUHQW ODQJXDJHV of Nigerian tribes including, Isoko, 8UKRER (GR (ÀN Some of his popular songs include ‘Lift Him High’, ‘Na Only You I know’, ‘Na Only You I Know’ ‘No more Drama’, ‘Jehovah Idi Ebube’, ‘Jehovah is glorious’, ‘The Statement’ and ‘Baba Ye’.