‘Finishing school was a struggle’

Nigerian singer, Adedamola Adefolahan popularly known as Fireboy DML has opened up for the first time about some challenges he faced as a student who had developed an interest in music but had to combine it with a university education.

The songwriter, who is currently signed to Olamide’s YBNL record label said “finishing school was a struggle”.

He made the statement in a recent interview with Chude.

According to Fireboy, he was a brilliant student who was torn between schooling and music whiles in the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU).

Fireboy added that his studies suffered as a result of lack of proper planning and time management and as a result, he had to repeat an extra year.

“Finishing school was a struggle. It was a tough time for me. I had an extra year but I finished. To be honest I just couldn’t wait to finish school because I knew that after school like this I wasn’t going back home. I was going straight to Lagos,” said Fireboy who was based in Abeokuta at the time.

He continued: “There was a time my dad came to my school. Oh God! Final year and your dad came to school. It was as if I was in secondary school and he was holding my hand like let’s go to your lecturer’s office. It was really embarrassing and those were really tough times for me.”

Born in 1996, Fireboy DML released his first studio album Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps in 2019. He later won Listener’s Choice and was nominated for Song of the Year for “Jealous” at the 2020 Soundcity MVP Awards.

He is known for hit singles such as “Jealous” (2018), “What If I Say” (2019), “King” (2019), “New York City Girl” (2020), “Eli” (2020) and “Peru” (2021).