Popular Nigerian music star, Timaya, has told the story of how he started his music career and how he sold his first album for N500,000.
In a recent talk on the Afro Intelligent Podcast, the singer, who is now 44 years old, shared that in 2007, he was moving back and forth between Lagos and Port Harcourt. He was trying to find someone who would help him sell his first music album called “True Story”.
At that time, Timaya had no big name and no sponsor. But one day, while in Port Harcourt, he met a CD seller by the roadside. That person connected him to a music marketer in Alaba, a famous market in Lagos where many CDs were sold.
Timaya said when he got to the marketer’s shop, he played his songs for him. One of the songs was “Ogologoma”. As it played, people walking into the shop asked if they could buy the song — even though it wasn’t out yet! This showed the marketer that the song was special.
The marketer was impressed and offered to buy the whole album for N500,000. Timaya said he was hoping to get N3.5 million, so he was a bit shocked. But he remembered that other marketers had offered him only N45,000 and even N25,000, so N500,000 felt like a huge step up.
At first, Timaya didn’t agree. But when he told other upcoming musicians about the offer, they didn’t believe him — it was just too much compared to what they had been offered. So Timaya quickly called the marketer back and accepted the deal.
Later, the same marketer gave Timaya more support:
- He paid Timaya N7 million
- He bought him a car
- He paid for music video shoots
Thanks to this deal, Timaya’s music became popular, and people started inviting him for music features and shows.
When Timaya was ready to sell his second album, he went back to the same marketer. But this time, the marketer offered him only N10 million, and Timaya felt he was worth more.
So, he met Abu Ventures, another marketer. After talking and bargaining, they agreed on N24 million for the album. Timaya said he even received N11 million upfront the next morning.
Today, Timaya is a big name in Nigerian music, but he wants people to know that he didn’t have it easy at the start. His story teaches us to keep pushing, believe in our talent, and never give up.
