Aka Melody is one of the big names in music in Lagos. He is a versatile artiste who sings a variety of songs. He is blessed with a sonorous voice.
On Sunday 2nd of June 2019 City People Magazinehosted him at the City People Events CentreGbagada, Lagos. It was an evening of great fun and entertainment as he thrilled guests.
He was honoured for his remarkable contributions to the music industry.
After the well-attended show which attracted a lot of Lagos big boys, Aka Melody whose real name is Sunday Adebiyi revealed to City People Online Fashion and Beauty Magazine a lot about his life and career.
For instance, not many know that he is a UNILAG PoliticalSciencegraduate who also has a Master’s degree to top it up.
How did he coin the stage name Aka Melody we asked.
The name Aka is my surname. That’s what most people call me.
It’s even more popular than my own name...Sunday Adebiyi.
So when I started my own Band,
Aka Melodycame on easily.
Then, most of the Band I knew or that I was close to was ‘this’ melody and ‘that melody.
What made him go into music years back?
I have always been involved in music from my early years.
I was already in the choir from age 7 at St Andrew’s Anglican Church (now Cathedral of St Andrews’ Kabba Kogi state.
We were trained in any musical instrument that we have a flair for.
Mine was the Organ. Followed by the Guitar and the Drums.
The problem I had with the guitar then was that I am a ‘lefty’ and my trainer couldn’t handle a lefty on the guitar. Same with the set Drums then.
So I concentrated on the organ.
I was the school organist in my secondary school then. St. Barnabas Sec Sch Kabba.
This continued through my Unilag days while the Choir thing still continues at Ebenezer African Church, Okunola. St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Idimuand also at the Chapel in Unilag.
What made me go into music as a career was necessitated by a happenstance.
I attended a night party at Fola Agoro in 1992 with a friend from the UnilagCampus. Akoka.
There were several musical bands performing.
We were seated close to a band which comprises of some 3 - 5 guys with just a keyboard and they were playing good music.
I told them that I can sing and also play the keyboard too because I was doing that in church. They allowed me to play their keyboard and we played together that night. It was good to them and me too.
So we took it up from there. Since I was already entrenched in church, we were getting most of our shows from my church through me.
A show came from my in law and 2 guys were assigned to me to play together. They didn’t show up until the tail end. They went to another gig thinking that they can’t make money at the show we were to play together.
I was so disappointed because this show was my in law’s church society anniversary. So, I braced up and got on the keyboard and hosted a microphone and started performing alone. God took control and turned the disappointment into a lifetime blessing for me.
It was while I was performing that a passerby heard me and came to inquire if I could perform at Ibadan. The rest, as they say, is now history.
That was the point I decided to start my own Band in the year 1993.
How did he transit from being a one man band to having a full band?
The transition has been smooth in the sense that I was playing music with the church band in the different churches that I have been a chorister.
The transition has also been strategic. I didn’t want to just start a full band at once. It was one thing after the other. I added the talking drum firstly. Later, the Guitarand then Omele. Then the saxophone before the set drums.
I still do my one man show actively. Sometimes we do a 2 men, 3 men or 4 men show.
It depends on what was required.
How about schooling?
I attended St Andrew’s primary school in Kabba, Kwarastate then, now Kogi state.
Post-primary was St Barnabas secondary school also in Kabba.
I came to Lagos for my tertiary education in 1987.
I was offered admission to read political science in the great Universityof Lagosin 1989.
I graduated in 1994. Had my National Servicein OdigboLocal Government Secretariat. Ore, in Ondo state in 1995.
I put in for my Master’s in Pol Sc. in 1996at the same University of Lagos and throughout all these, i was doing my music by the side.
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