Music Diva, Christy Essien-Igbokwe, Dies At 50

The Moment (London)

Dave Oludare Oso And Abimbola Adebayo

1 July 2011

CHRISTY Uduak Essien-Igbokwe, MFR, popularly known as “Lady of Songs”, has died.

According to family sources, the singer passed on after a brief illness at a private hospital in Lagos on Thursday morning.

She was aged 51.

Born few weeks after Nigeria’s Independence, on November 11, 1960, she hailed from Akwa Ibom State.

She had a successful career that spanned over 35 years and released her first album titled “Freedom” in 1976, as a 16-year-old.

She hit limelight in the early eighties with the monumentally successful hit track, Omo mi seun rere, which became a sort of national anthem then.

She also had some other songs like Ife and Moloro in Yoruba language and also did great songs in Ibibio, Igbo and Hausa languages.

The late musician was also an actress and featured in the hugely popular TV drama series, “The New Masquerade” where she played Apena, wife of Jegede Sokoya. She also starred in “Patience”, “Give me a Chance”, “Time Waits for no One” and “Hear the Call.”

She was the first female president of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN.)

Her son, Solomon, revealed that her mother has a premonition of her death, as she has prophesied earlier in the year that she would die.

The late singer is survived by her husband, Edwin, a former director of Punch newspaper and four children.

The Nigeria entertainment world was rocked by a string of tragedies in the last one year, with the deaths of Fuji crooner, Sikiru Ayinde Balogun, popularly called Barrister, who died in London last December at 62 and veteran Nollywood actor, Ashley Nwosu.

Last March, Koko Mansion contestant, Chidinma Mbalaso was killed in an auto crash in Kaduna at the age of 22.

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