Nigerian gospel still struggling to receive the recognition it deserves, says Amazin Ijeoma

For Ijeoma Ogbodo Nweze well known in the music terrain as Amazin Ijeoma, gospel music knows no bound; a reason she is always looking for ways to do good music that will minister to people and transform lives.

According to the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Geology and Mining graduate, she was favoured to have grown up in a musical family, and lucky to be married to a husband with music background, and blessed by God with children who also sing.

She said, “I love music generally; I love singing, playing and dancing. My music work is a job Christ called me to do in his house. So my musical career remains more of a passion than a profession.”

“As Christians one thing that we give directly to God and he enjoys is our praise and worship. I have this fulfilment with every praise and worship session during my quiet times, leading praise or worship session to a large congregation,” she added.

Ijeoma further explain that the desire to reach out to people and touch lives inspires her to sing, adding that music is a global language that has no bounds. “I don’t underestimate how far across the world we can reach out with our songs,” she stated.

Describing her kind of music, the Minnesota Graduate School of Theology trained Nouthetic Christian Counsellor, said she is influenced by scriptural experiences, and this influences her to have a lot of words of encouragements in her songs.

“I know that there are still a lot of people that listen to song based on the lyrics. I like to keep the delivery as natural and simple as possible, reason I use a lot of live and traditional instruments rather than programmed instruments. Most of my songs are written from live experiences.”

Are you working on anything new?
“I released my fifth album, late last year, precisely December and followed with sixth album early this year, January 2016. I have also just released my 15th official music video with the titled Obianulika (Joy), and I have another single coming out soon.”

For the Greenwich University graduate, Cece Winnans, Tasha Cobbs, Mary Mary, Tamela Mann, Donnie McClurkin, Juanita Bynum, and Sinach are role models she looks up to in the industry, but she is influenced by a the Nigerian elegant stallion, Onyeka Onwenu.

On her take on the Nigerian music industry, Ijeoma said, “Nigerians are quite talented, especially the producers over there. I originally started with contemporary western style, but it wasn’t long before I opened up to every style, which then drew me to the Nigerian Afro Beat style.

“I think Nigerian music industry has now overtaken other African music industries. Nigerian gospel is still struggling to receive the recognition it deserves. I pray that one day, revival will return to the church, and we Christians will see the mandate that God gave to us, and we stop compromising on the quality we offer our audience.