If you’ve been following this writer’s spotlight on emerging crooners across Afrobeats and beyond, then you’d realise that there are so many hidden gems everywhere. Sometimes, all it takes is one song to do the convincing. Interestingly, that is exactly the case with Richy Okechukwu, a Nigerian troubadour whose romantic yearning in his recent bop, Ifunanya, is as powerful and arresting as any great love record could be.

Richy Okechukwu’s Ifunanya delivers on quality through intentional production. It is built from a highlife-leaning soundscape woven around faith-based praise, Afropop, and a tinge of R&B. In Ifunanya, Richy stretches the boundaries of these individual genres, giving himself moments to expand and immerse his sonority into the song. It is an exciting tune that lands the instant you press play, and it is one that Richy keeps through to the end.

Beyond its interesting fusion palette, Ifunanya is also a noteworthy composition. Richy combines the raspy, hip-hop-leaning, gyration-leaning cadence of highlife with this potpourri of melodies, and somehow still holds it at the centre with a very calm, warm, amber chorus that is slower-paced. There are the highlife guitar chords that spark up the excitement in the song from the midpoint, but Richy’s pop delivery lands right from the moment the song begins, giving it that energy and pulse from the start before reminding one that it is, however, still a love song, still a calm, gentle love song. It is a drift between pop and an R&B sojourn, with each movement adding something to the song’s emotional texture.

Another thing that’s interesting about this record is its songwriting. Here, Richy makes the music feel very layered in terms of its presentation. He creates a buildup that makes one think he is singing about a woman. Interestingly, he is, but it is not necessarily presented that way. He begins to adulate the woman by saying he blesses the day they met. He recognises her as the bone of his bone and the flesh of his flesh, using strong metaphors and comparisons that keep one swooned into that romantic ambience.

But by the midpoint, when he starts to chant her name, Ifunanya, which loosely translates from Igbo as love, he is simply creating a thanksgiving record where he is praising God for creating this woman that he is so much in love with. It is such an interesting presentation that adds an edge to his writing. Otherwise, it is also a very flowery and simple poetry, delivered through lyrics that do not get boring. The writing remains bubbly while still being profound and didactic. It is not so polished with seriousness that it loses its warmth, neither is it mundane at its core. That balance is what makes the writing deliver, allowing the words to hit hard where they are destined to, in the hearts of listeners.

There is also code-switching. Apart from the song’s chorus, at other moments in the song, he switches from Igbo to English, back to Pidgin, and back to Igbo. It is an interesting drift that keeps the tempo, pace, cadence, and rhythm of the music alive. The switches also feel natural to the song’s Nigerian character, allowing Richy to move between languages without disrupting the emotional thread he has established.

Another cool thing about Ifunanya is the fact that it is cathartic. That is one notch that every artist, especially in the early stages of their career, should aim for: making music that makes one stop to think, makes one start to wonder, makes one sit deep within their feelings, or makes one get lost in a groove. Music is supposed to be a companion of our lives, the soundtrack of our existence.

So, if you’re an artist making songs about love, just like Richy did in Ifunanya, you’re expected to elevate the music, especially with the simplest tool of contrast. Once you are able to contrast emotions and tensions, the highs and the lows, and give your song intense moments, you create spaces where the listener can inhabit the music. Those moments can come through sustained melodies, crescendos, melismas, or any of that vocal-technique jamboree that gives a listener something to feel in a particular moment of the song.

We cannot always remember a full song, but sometimes we remember a particular part of it that feels like a part of us. That is exactly how Richy presents Ifunanya. He gives the listener a series of moments to hold onto, moving between its highlife pulse, gentle chorus, layered writing, and devotional undertones.

Overall, Ifunanya is an interesting record, delicately written, carried by profound lyrics, and well sung. Richy Okechukwu understands the emotional possibilities of a love song and gives himself enough room to explore them, allowing the record to sit somewhere between romance, praise, and personal devotion. It is a promising introduction to a voice worth keeping an ear on. It sits at 8/10.

Richy Okechukwu, born Tochukwu Okechukwu Richard in Lagos and originally from Arochukwu, Abia State, began his professional music career in 2011. His music blends RnB gospel, Afro-gospel, worship and contemporary Christian music, combining African gospel influences with modern production.