Popular Nigerian singer Flavour, born Chinedu Okoli, has recounted a defining moment early in his career that reshaped his musical journey, crediting iconic duo P-Square for inspiring his evolution from a performer to a true recording artist.
Speaking on the ‘In My Opinion’ podcast, Flavour recalled a night he was performing live when he was asked to hand over the microphone upon the arrival of Peter and Paul Okoye, better known as P-Square.
He described watching in awe as the duo took the stage and performed their hit song ‘Temptation’, sending the crowd into a frenzy. “The place was electrified,” Flavour said, highlighting their stage presence and unique sound.
He noted that although already a skilled singer and instrumentalist, the experience made Flavour realise he was “just a music man” at the time, lacking a distinct artistic identity.
Motivated by P-Square’s ability to record and connect deeply with audiences through their own sound, Flavour said the encounter pushed him to develop his own style. That pivotal moment eventually led to his breakthrough with chart-topping songs like ‘Ada Ada’, establishing him as one of Nigeria’s most recognisable music stars.
He said, “I was playing and immediately P-Square came in, the manager said ‘Hello, get off that thing!’ I switched off and passed the microphone, went somewhere and sat down. Girls were saying ‘wow wow wow’ and Paul of P-Square took the microphone with his voice and just sang ‘This na temptation’, everywhere scattered. So I was like ‘na the same music these people dey do, me dey here with una, una shout like this for me’. I was so cold, I was just watching, they did their thing.
“When they left, the manager turned and said ‘oya!’ then it started to occur to me that these guys, the difference is they create their own music, they make a sound and go to the studio and record and that’s how it’s done, and you are just a music man. So, how do I switch from music man to an artist? That was the difficult part of it, and I thought it was going to be easy because I could play, I could sing…but now to create your own sound, where are you going to start from?”
