Veteran musician, Michael Adedayo Alaba, popularly known as Micho Ade has again been talking about his plan to establish a charity foundation as part of his desire to give back to the society.
He said, “I desire to have a foundation named Micho Ade Foundation to cater for the needs of the less privileged in the society. This is one way to give back to the society; I will be launching it as part of my 50 years anniversary on stage”.
Speaking further on the activities lined up to commemorate his 50 years anniversary on stage, he said, “Between June 1st-5th, we will be having praise concert and on the last day, I will be launching a new album on Sunday, June 5 at Jogor Center, Ibadan”.
Speaking on how he ventured into music profession, “I did not start with music just like that. I started with farming while I was very young in Ikere Ekiti. I am still into farming because I stayed long in the village. I did not have the opportunity to attend tertiary institution because my parents were not financially buoyant. After I graduated from the secondary modern school, I started living with my boss and I was learning Stenography.
“Fortunately, my boss was also a musician and whenever he was going out for any musical concert, I used to follow him, gradually I started developing interest in it before I later joined morning star musical band. Staying with my boss helped me to develop my musical skills”.
The musician later stated that he received N75 (seventy-five naira) as his first remuneration for his first show, revealing that passion and love for music as a profession endeared him to the industry.
He also spoke about his predicament and challenging situations in the 1990’s which made him to release the hit song “Oju Ogun laye’ that later became a household anthem in the country.
His words “I had so many challenges and it got to a certain stage that I started questioning myself, friends and colleagues if I am the only one encountering such difficult challenges. I later realized that life is full of battles when people told me of their individual but peculiar challenges too”.
Continuing, apart from the car accidents that happened to my close associates at close intervals, I had three patients who were receiving treatments at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan and I became a regular visitor to the hospital. In fact, my wife who was pregnant at that time had to be surgically operated because the unborn child in her womb was dead.
The Septuagenarian musician made these revelations while featuring on a weekly radio show, Parrot Xtra/Ayekooto on Radio’ anchored by Olayinka Agboola and broadcast live on Splash 105.5FM, Felele Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State on Tuesday.
He also took time off to reveal his most embarrassing moment in the industry: “I have experienced different kinds of embarrassment on duty as musician; I even experienced artificial rain. There was a particular engagement that we had together with another senior colleague musician who set up his own state about 60 meters facing our own stage. When we started playing, rain suddenly began to fall. Funny enough, the rains did not get to the other notable musician 60 meters away from us!
“I got so frustrated that I had to suspend our activities and I went to join the senior musician on his stage to let him know indirectly that I was aware of how he ‘arranged’ for rain to disturb us.
“He immediately got my message when he saw me. He later asked me what was happening. I did not mince words. I let him know how I felt. Somehow, God ministered on to him and he asked me to return to my stage and the rains stopped.
Packaged by Dare Raji, Mayowa Owogbade and Timileyin Fasoro
