The singer said that due to the shame associated with her teenage pregnancy, she was forced to move from Benin to Enugu to live with her aunt. It was at a church in Enugu that she discovered her talent as a singer and she signed her first record deal when she was 19 years old.
“I think ‘Do Me’ came out in 2006 or 2007. Like by the time ‘Do Me’ came out, I had already signed a record deal five or six years later. I signed because I remember my daughter was about 1 and she was about 19 at the time, so I signed and moved to Enugu. When I had my daughter, the stigma and everything, you know, the teenage pregnancy and all that. So I couldn’t live in Benin anymore, so I left Benin and I moved to Enugu, to my mother’s sister’s house.”
Waje then went on to elaborate on his life in Enugu. She talked about how she worked in a church as a secretary with a salary of N1,000, which is the equivalent of N5,000 in today’s naira.
“Now I stayed, amazing woman, I call her great mom. I stayed with her and she used to attend a church called Almond Chapel. Since I hadn’t entered school yet, I started working as a church secretary. So my salary was 1000 naira and this was the year 2002 and 1000 naira maybe would be 5000 naira today it was a growing church but i enjoyed it because i used to wear my aunt’s skirt suits i needed to be an adult-up.
Waje revealed that his decision to do mainstream music was based on God’s instructions, as he always wanted to do only gospel.
“I was in the choir and one Sunday after I sang, that’s when I met my mentor Chris Madubuko. So when I met him, he heard me sing and he said, ‘I have a record label, you sing well and you should.’ be signed. I thought no, they didn’t call me to sign. They called me to sing the gospel. Even if it wasn’t gospel, I didn’t want to put my voice on a track. the music was worried, it was the church”.
“I was fine singing from church to church. Then he convinced me that ‘God gave you such a beautiful gift, you can’t just be there and you can earn money from this gift.’ So I signed with him.”
Nigerian singer Aituaje Iruobe is better known by her stage name Waje. She first became known for her appearance in P-Square’s remake of ‘Omoge Mi’. Waje was also featured on the duo’s 2008 hit song ‘Do Me’.
