Vanguard, FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2015—29
Style-Plu s huge com plans eback
.Manage m e problems nt d r o ve us apart , says Shi fi
STYLE-Plus was one of the hottest groups in the modern day Nigerian music scene,which made waves in the early 2000, with the smash singles, “Runaway” and “Olufunmi.” Unfortunately, the group went underground several years ago, after one of the trio, Tunde Akinsanmi decided to embark on a solo career, leaving Shifi Omoefe and Zeal Onyecheme to their fates. While many have attributed the demise of the group to selfish ego and dwindling musical fortunes, Shifi in this exclusive interview with Weekend Groove blames their misfortunes on management issue, revealing, however, that the group is planning to stage a comeback next year.
By Benjamin Njoku
Your fans have been missing the group since you went underground many years ago. Do you have any plan to stage a comeback?
Imelda J makes headline again! C M Y K
Ye s , we are looking forward to staging a comeback next year. We might release a single before the end of this year(last year). If everything works out the way we planned it, we also might be doing a collaboration. But hopefully, we are going to drop an album next year. What happened to the group? A lot of things happened. We had a fallout with our management twice.
Best Nollywood movies of 2014
More so, one of us left the group. There has been a lot of repackaging so to say. Sometimes, our fans think the group is disbanded, while in actuality, the group is still in existence. Only one of us left the group. There was a period when everything was a bit edgy, but we have come together again.
The return of NITEL and other tech surprises 2015 might bring
Why did Tunde Akinsanmi walk out of the group. Was there any internal squabble? He embarked on a solo career, which he’s currently pursuing. That’s what he wanted for himself. It’s not like we were married in a court of law. He felt, it was the direction he needed at that stage of his career. He’s getting on well and it will surprise you to see three of us come together again some day. But what have you been doing since the group went underground? We still sing. We still attend a lot of events, especially in the northern part of the country and sometimes in Europe. But apart from that, for years now, we all have our hands in different businesses to make ends meet. Don’t you think your disappearance from the scene was a serious setback to the group? You know, as people grow with age, individual priorities tend to come up, and sometimes, they overshadow that of the group. If you call it a setback, you just want to. But it’s about life and life happens. It could have happened six years ago,or four years from now. But the major thing is that, if the music is in you, you keep singing and do
Continues on page 30