Recently, legendary singer, Innocent Ujah Idibia fondly known as 2baba made the news when he donated a multimillion naira studio to the music department of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
The 46-year-old hails from Idoma in Makurdi, Benue State where he had his secondary school education before joining the Institute of Management & Technology (IMT), in Enugu, to study Business Administration and Management.
Having discovered his talent and passion for music early enough, he soon became popular at IMT where he performed at parties, shows and concerts. However, he eventually dropped out of the school to concentrate on his burgeoning music career.
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Popularly known by the stage name Tuface until in July 2014 when he rebranded and changed his stage name to 2Baba, the singer is considered as one of the most celebrated and successful entertainers in Africa. With a career that has spanned over two decades, he has recorded massive achievements with local and international awards to his name.
He is the first winner of MTV Europe’s Best African Act Award in 2015 and has won a World Music Award, also, he has five Headies Awards (Hip-hop), four Channel O Music Video Awards, one BET award, four MTV Africa Music Awards, among others.
In 2016, he was awarded a Master of Arts in Music by Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Nigeria before he was conferred with the honorary Fellow of the School of Music by the Music Department in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria in 2019 as the pioneer recipient of the prestigious title.
The megastar is married to Annie Macaulay-Idibia, an award-winning model-cum-actress, and the union is flowered with two children. 2Baba also has five other children with two other women making the total number of his children to seven.
Among the music legend’s most successful songs is “African Queen” which was released in 2004 in his first solo album titled, “Face 2 Face.”
The hit song – African Queen – was later used in 2006 as a soundtrack in a Hollywood movie titled ‘Phat Girlz,” consequent of its enormous international prominence and cultural substance.
His wife, Annie, happened to be the star woman in the song’s music video that was released 8 years before they got married in 2012.
African Queen is a sensational romantic song that somewhat tries to describe the roof-top beauty standard of the black African woman, considering the ways it idolizes and praises the African woman’s charming beauty.
The song started by declaring the woman character in the song as his African Queen, followed by the imaginative description of who he feels she is to him, by using such romantic imageries as “the sun,” “the light of the earth,” “the light of my life,” etc.
It is highly commendable that even as a modern musician, 2Baba has tried impressively not to forget the importance of the figures of speech. And among the ones used are those that can deeply evoke feelings of love and beauty.
2Baba, in African Queen, strived well to reveal powerful sentiments, of both the inner and outer aesthetic value of the African woman, not only through the powerful lyrical lines but also through the elegant choice of the consumes, as well as the dance steps.
African Queen was enormously received globally that it bagged the musician about 20 highly acclaimed awards.
Watch video below:
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