No doubt, Eniola Lias Abiodun a.k.a Queen Ayangbajumo is
one of the highly successful female talking drummers in the world, the Ogun
State born Act has already carved a niche for herself and she has become a
force to reckon with in the entertainment world.
Ayangbajumo, who is currently based in United
State of America, is a great singer and a competent master of ceremonies, also
talented Wedding Engagement compère (Alaga iduro-alaga ijokoo.)
The daughter of a Retired Major in the
Nigerian army recently shared her journey into the entertainment world with us,
she also told us about her project ‘Ayan-to-gbajumo award, which second edition
will come up on July 27th, 2019 in USA. Ayangbajumo, the multi-talented and award
winning drummer-cum-singer in an interview with this magazine has these to say:
Excerpt.
Can you share your family background with us?
Queen Ayangbajumo: My name is Eniola Lias Abiodun, my stage name
is Queen Ayangbajumo. My parents are Mr. and Mrs. Abdulazeez Lias. My
father is a retired Army from Gbagura town in Abeokuta, Ogun state , while my
mother is from Ilesha in Osun State. I was born in Ogenusa Barracks Benin City
in the late 70s
Tell us about your educational background
Queen Ayangbajumo: I had my elementary School at Army Primary
School, Benin, Koko Atan Primary School, Atan- Ota, Ogun State. My
secondary school was Ojodu Grammar School, Ojodu, Ikeja, Lagos. I also attended
Humble Commercial Institute of Secretarial Studies, Ogba, Lagos, NIIT Ikeja
Lagos and Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State.
How did you pick interest in drumming?
Queen Ayangbajumo: I’m not from the family of drummers, but
I picked the interest from my grandmother, my mum is from Ilesha, Osun State
and her dad was very popular and was a rich man while he was alive. He had
three wives and all of them had three to four set of twins, my mummy was
the last set of twins from his first wife.
Those days, it was a common practice to take twins
around to dance and beg for money, but my grandfather who was a rich man did not
like that, he decided to do it in his own way by buying all types of drums
and inviting all the well known drummers in Osogbo and Ilesa every last
Saturday of every month to come and drum and sing for his twins. He will also
invite his friends to join him so that they could spray the twins money while dancing.
All the wives will be singing different lyrics of the Ibeji’s. This practice was on for many years
before he passed on.
After his death there was no money to continue
calling the drummers and do the cooking, this prompted my grandma who had the
last set of twins to be drumming and singing for her children on her own till
she got the knowledge of the talking drum.
So, while growing up as a child we were always
taken to Ilesa to spend our holidays with our grandma, among all the children
then; I was the only one that will bring down the drums where they were
all hung. I would beat the drum with no rhythm and making a lot of noise with
it. My grandma saw my commitment in it, she later taught me the
drumming part and by myself I started joining words to make it meaningful.
After my secondary school, I joined Alariwo of
Africa as a backup artiste. I was with him, when he did an album titled ‘Yawa
go gas’ and I left him after some times to face my studies.
However, after I finished from the Poly, I was
into Ewi poetry, also doing my drumming stuff, though not perfect yet. One day,
a male friend introduced me to Lagbaja’s band leader, Mr. Muri Ayangbola and it
was him that taught me the nitty-gritty of the job. When I got there, I met
Ayanbinrin who had already been learning the job but she later left while I was
still there. Ayangbola taught me Apala, Iya-Ilu, Gangan and others.
How did you parents react, when you picked drumming as a profession?
How did you parents react, when you picked drumming as a profession?
Queen Ayangbajumo: I started very early in life, my parent
especially my dad was against this trade, all he wanted was a banker child. He
is a retired soldier, a Major in Nigeria Army, who cherished education so much.
It was God that intervened and I thank God today that I did not let him down.
Did you face any challenge when you started?
Haa, I face a lot of challenges when I
started, especially financial problem, but with my passion, commitment and
God’s grace, we are glorifying God for his mercy today.
Apart from drumming, we learnt that
Ayangbajumo also sings…
Queen Ayaangbajumo: I have been a singer right from my childhood days
but I preferred drumming to singing and I did combine both to entertain fans
and admirers. “I sing, dance and beat drum, I have many successful
records to my name.
Your First outing outside Nigeria, how was the
experience?
Queen Ayaangbajumo: Before my first American tour, I was in
Germany for performance. I got to know that female drummers are well
appreciated in the western-world than Africa. After my Germany tour, Luku
Jazz Entertainment, a promoter in America, New Jersey, invited me to
America for performance. On getting there, I met a lot of promoters and
one of them, OLANTECH Global Promotion took interest in my performance and took
me all over the states in America for performance.
I played in Dallas, Texas, Posting, Maryland,
Georgia, Delaway and New York. Most importantly, I played for Musiliu
Akinsanya (MC Oluomo) in New York for his birthday celebration. I have
performed in South Africa, Germany, Amsterdam, Boston and France too. I also
did lot of shows in New Jersey where I am a resident. I’m happy to let you know
that I have received lot of honours and awards, the recent ones was Yeye Asa of
Texas and Cultural Ambassador in the Diaspora. The experience was very awesome.
Can you tell us about your annual award and
concert?
Queen Ayangbajumo:The first edition held in Nigeria in 2016 and
it was a large turnout and the second edition is coming up in the United State
of America in July 27th 2019. Ayan-to-gbajumo award is meant to
appreciate all the drummers in the world both males and females, because I have
never seen or heard about a talking drummer being appreciated or celebrated
before and yet they are the power behind music. Drummers are not well known
like the musicians, ‘AGA AWARD’ is the first to appreciate drummers and up till
this moment I have not seen anybody coming out to do the same thing or adding
the drummers into the well existing entertainment awards. So I am using the
awards to show them love and appreciate their talents.
In this year, we have two categories, Legend
drummer and the drummer of the year, the legend drummer is for old drummers who
the musician he played for is late, for instance, Orlando Owoh is late, but is
drummer Baba Elemede is alive. Likewise, the drummers whose musician still lives
and the drummer is alive too, for instance, Obesere is alive and his drummer,
Sharafa is alive too.
This year, we shall have appreciation awards to
make it bigger than the previous.
