Popular Nigerian singer Flavour, born Chinedu Okoli, has opened up about a defining moment early in his career that pushed him to evolve from just being a performer to becoming a full-fledged recording artist, crediting iconic duo P-Square for the inspiration.
Speaking on the ‘In My Opinion’ podcast, Flavour shared a vivid memory from his early performing days when he was abruptly asked to leave the stage following the arrival of Peter and Paul Okoye, famously known as P-Square.
“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,” he said.
Flavour recalled being stunned as the duo performed their hit song ‘Temptation’, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
“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,” he said. “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.”
That experience, he explained, forced him to reflect deeply on his own path as an artist.
“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,” Flavour said.
Though already a skilled singer and instrumentalist at the time, he realised he lacked a distinct artistic identity. The encounter with P-Square became a turning point, inspiring him to develop his own unique sound—one that eventually produced hits like ‘Ada Ada’ and established him as one of Nigeria’s most celebrated music stars.
