Yinka Davies
| Yinka Davies | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Yinka Davies |
| Born | July 16, 1970 |
| Origin | , Sweden |
| Genres | Afrobeat, jazz |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Instruments | vocals |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Labels | EniObanke |
| Associated acts | 5&6 Band |
| Website | yinkadavies |
Yinka Davies (born July 16, 1970) is a Nigerian vocalist, dancer, lyricist and judge of reality show, Nigerian Idol. Yinka has been in the Nigerian entertainment industry for 28 years.
Slogan – Time has come to speak up for ourselves
Father – Benin Republic/Sierra Leone Lisabi clan who moved to Lagos because he was originally from Nigeria. .
Mother – from Ikorodu, Lagos State.
Paternal grandmother - from the Shagamu royal family
These origins affect her musical influences. She remembers that her father had a guitar. She grew up to the sounds of Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash, Elvis and Jimmy Dean when she was growing up as this was the music that her father liked to listen to.
As she grew older in the 1970s and 1980s the radio at her grandmother’s house was always tuned to Radio Lagos which played a variety of African music from Manu Dibango (Cameroun - Makossa), Mmaman Shatta (traditional Northern Nigerian musician), Dan Maria Jos (Northern Nigeria), Orlando Julius (southern Nigeria - highlife), Hadjia Funtua (northern Nigeria), Victor Uwaifo (southern Nigeria - Joromi), Fela (southern Nigeria - Afrobeat) to mention few.
She also remembers watching the late TV personality Art Alade (father of Dare Art-Alade) who had a popular television program called the Bar Beach Show featuring various musicians as well as his own resident band. It became obvious to Yinka that there was a lack of female musicians - in the 1980s she listened to Salawa Abeni (Yoruba) and Dora Ifudu (popular musician in RnB genre) who was one of the female musicians that influenced her.
Her first love was actually painting and sculpting; being a musician was not a priority for her initially. Easter Monday 1987 was the start of her journey into the arts when she visited the National Theatre in Lagos to explore becoming a visual artist. She went to meet Abiodun Olaku a renowned Nigerian painter. Her first love was actually painting and sculpting. She then got caught up in the ambiance of the national theatre. She was later commissioned by the late Bassey Effiong (theatre director) to help him paint the stage for a production of Marriage of Anansewa by Efua Sutherland. It was during this project that she experienced how her 2 dimensional painting dreams began to evolve with their own movement and could take on a life of their own.
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Wikipedia