Singer Seyi Shay had an incredible year in 2015, as she hit personal heights with mouth-watering deals with Island Universal Records, Pepsi, and released her debut album as well as celebrated the success of her hit singles including Murda.

Though underrated, she feels there’s politics and there are different people you have to please at different times. “I feel like I’m not a power house; I am not a Chocolate City or Mavins, I am not any of these record labels. I’m just a girl, trying to make an imprint, and trying to do something different.”

For her, Omawumi is one of the people that really inspire her. “She is someone that set this trend of being a woman, and just going at it… believing in yourself and working extra hard because we have to. We are girls and we are not signed to any label.

“It’s not really about being undermined or undervalued. Some opportunities come to different people at different times for different reasons. And time, is probably the operative word and most powerful word in everything I have just said there, because time means everything. And I feel like my time will come.”

On her relationship with Sound Sultan and Orezi, she said, “he was there as a father. I didn’t grow up with my dad or meet him until quite late in my life; I was raised by my mom and siblings pretty much in the UK. When I met Sound Sultan, he was very, very fatherly to me. The very first day I just him, my group had just broken up, I was in a studio in London trying to continue my career with or without any help. He walked in, heard something playing from the producer who heard my voice on it and he was impressed.

“I have known Orezi for like two years; I knew him before he had his first hit song. I met him through Del B and he is so talented. I wish you guys could actually hear him sing; he is phenomenal and a great songwriter.

With her beautiful face and figure eight that could even make a monk denounce his monkhood, some movie directors have been on her with few roles in the recent time, but her tight schedule is not making bulge, as she needs to see to her record label, sign new acts and get close to her fans now that they have an idea of what she is about.

“I have a good relationship with Nollywood in general, and I like to act as you can tell from my music videos. I know few directors that are really cool. But I don’t know if I have that much time now, especially this year. I have to go on tour across the Africa with my new work. I own a record label, so I have to sign people and focus on them. Also, I’m a woman, I need to chill out and be like a woman. So there is a lot of other things I need to do first before I think of acting and modeling.”

On her Island Universal Records deal, she said, “I was signed mainly off the strength of Murda, which was released independently, completely independently with no engine; no marketing, no money. And it grew its own wings, it crossed over, and charted in the UK on its own. I think they found that to be quite a big deal, so they decided to invest in wherever that success came from and that was me and my team.”