Nigerian comedian and university lecturer, Dr. Helen Paul, has revealed that she was the voice behind ‘Uncle, please tell us a story’, in P-Square’s ‘Story’, the hit song that dominated the airwaves in 2005.
Dr. Paul who earned a doctorate degree and now lectures in the United States made this disclosure in a recent interview on the Honest Bunch Podcast, where she stated that she was a receptionist at the time and that she got the opportunity after the children who were contracted to do the voiceover failed to show up.
“At the beginning, I didn’t know P-Square. I didn’t even know they were going to blow. They came to the studio, and they wanted to record their songs. I think they were expecting some children to come and got disappointed. So, Ayo Adeife said, “We have somebody who can do this voice, and this person can do all the range of children,” she added.
“I didn’t know what range was, but I was just very good at imitating voices till date. I was a receptionist then, and when they told them, they agreed. And the guy just said, Helen, ‘You will work in the nights, but we’re not paying much. I said, I don’t care; just buy me a ‘soft drink’, because I loved it at the time.
“So they gave me the job, and I did the voicing of the children in the song. So they merged all the different children. So it sounded full. When the song started reigning, I didn’t even know what it was to put your name on a song; I didn’t fight for it.”
Helen Paul also revealed that her voice got her many jobs, and she moved from earning N9,500 monthly to over N400,000 monthly.
“The next job I did was for a milk product. I was at the reception when they brought this job, and they told me the child that was to do it was having exams. They said they would not be able to take that in the office because the advert needed to air at 3 p.m. and it was 12 p.m., so they were looking for a baby voice.
“Uncle Ayo said, ‘Let’s try Helen’ and they brought me in to lay the voice, which I did. After the ad, I signed a paper for which I didn’t know the content. At that point, my salary was N9,500; I started receiving about N400,000 or N450,00 every month.”
Dr. Paul’s life story over the years has been a source of inspiration. She has been bold to disclose that she is a product of a rape and that she suffered several rejections and trauma in her family up to the period she got married, when a boss in her office once discouraged her fiance from marrying her.
