Waje is as hungry as ever to achieve success

amazing. You learn more and you’re also investing your knowledge in other people. You get to meet people who are really yearning for what you have and what you know. It’s also an opportunity to bond with other artists like yourself. Like the other coaches.”

During her time here, she’s been working with one of the other coaches, Yemi Alade, on some new music.

Waje has worked with the likes of fellow Nigerian superstars M.I, Banky W and Patoranking, who’s also a judge on the show. It’s a close-knit industry in Nigeria, she says, and there’s a great sense of camaraderie.

Lately, Waje has been working on her album and been busy with a lot of collaborations. A month or so ago, she released a single with local songstress, Lira, titled Mountain.

This is the first single from her upcoming album.

Waje’s big break came 10 years ago, when she was featured on P. Square’s Do Me.

But because she wasn’t featured in the video, Waje didn’t really benefit from the song’s breakout success the way she’d have liked to. She considers that she started becoming a force in 2009.

“That’s when I really took my career into my own hands and started doing stuff for myself, not just features.

“That’s when I eventually came out with a single and started pushing myself as an artist.”

Given the fact that she had so little exposure and she didn’t go to music or business school, she’s had to learn on the job.

But she’s done well and, over the past five or so years, she’s amassed some impressive achievements, such as seeing her selftitled debut album receive four nominations at the World Music Awards in 2014.

Ten years in the industry now and she’s as hungry as ever to achieve yet more success.

In her spare time, Waje loves nothing more than catching a good movie. She says her favourite film is The Sound of Music. When I tell her I’ve never seen it, she sighs heavily and exclaims dramatically, “No, sacrilege!” We laugh.

Waje has also done a bit of acting and will be looking to do more work in that space over the coming years.

She also wants to get into fashion and sees herself selling merchandise in the not so distant future.

“I’m a rings girl. I love wearing them on stage. This is actually minimal,” she says, gesturing towards the glittering rings wrapped around her fingers.

“I wear a lot of them, so it will be nice to have a Waje ring collection. Or Waje perfume collection.

“Just little things that aren’t so expensive that can help a woman look very good by herself without having to break the bank to do that.”