‘Male dominance makes it tough for upcoming female artistes’

Upcoming entertainment act, Sefiya, has said it is tough for female entertainment acts to crawl up the podium of the entertainment industry because of the dominance of males.“Well it would be untrue if I should say I do not have problems especially as a female artiste. It seems we are in a predominantly male-ruled industry […]

Upcoming entertainment act, Sefiya, has said it is tough for female entertainment acts to crawl up the podium of the entertainment industry because of the dominance of males.
“Well it would be untrue if I should say I do not have problems especially as a female artiste. It seems we are in a predominantly male-ruled industry because only a few female acts have distinguished themselves out from the lot and this is a problem for an up and coming act because you are being judged from the landmarks set by the very few notable female acts. Hence the problem is being able to be accepted for your style of music… note, not genre but style,” Sefiya Ibrahim said.
She said that everyone must not be Tiwa, Omawunmi or Waje and that people should try and appreciate whatever style or persona being portrayed by an upcoming act.
Another challenge facing upcoming artiste in the industry Sefiya says is the preferential treatment being accorded certain names by music promoters.
“It is discouraging when one spends time, resources and efforts to produce a song and sends it to those in charge of music distribution and it’s stalled because some big name sent in a song. It is morale dampening because everyone started somewhere and would get to stardom one day. Same thing applies in areas of concerts and gigs,” she said.
Sefiya whose flair for music began when she met her first group in Calabar in 2005 that were known as Night Fall Crew, before moving to Lagos where she joined her second group, Extra Ordinaires.
 In 2008, sefiya was signed by a modeling agency, Pillars and Pride of Afrika Modeling Agency where she modeled for companies like MTN and GLO.
This multi-talented Diva starred in Tinsel Drama in 2011, Dear Mother TV series also in 2011 and St. Mary, a cinema film. She had featured on musical videos like Egwu-Mastercraft, ft. Flavour, Back When- Davido ft. Naeto C, Me and U – Bracket and lots more.
Sefiya formed her own crew with Sassilicious and Red Blaze and named it Sugar Girls, where she was the lead vocalist. Her first single, “Under” produced by Boom Beats Empire took the music industry by storm, while her second single, “Love me jeje” produced by Del b, made headlines and rocked the airwaves.
The Abia State native, who hails from Bende Local Government, is savouring the success of her recent trip to South Africa to promote her third single “Ladies Nite”.
But she is positive with the level of professionalism she has seen in the industry. “For instance we now have music writers, composers, music business developers, entertainment lawyers, accountants, managers to mention just a few in addition to some Rights collecting societies,” she said.
She bluntly added that a lot more can be done in the area of distribution to help forestall the menace of piracy. “We need our own iTunes equivalent and Sony music distribution to ensure an equal and even distribution of music from Nigeria globally.”
Sefiya is also impressed by the quality of music coming out of the industry saying, “Our musical talents are recipients of different accolades via BET, Soul Train Awards even Grammy nominations, e.g. Femi Kuti. So I would categorically say there is an iota of hope for us when compared to music from other parts of the world.”