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At a point in my life I had only one shoe – Singer, Joeboy

December 29, 2021 No Comments

Nigerian singer and songwriter, Joeboy has recounted some of the challenges he encountered while growing up.

The musician in a chat with media personality, Chude Jideonwo, revealed how he got embarrassed as a kid for owing school fees affected his self-esteem.

Joeboy also spoke about some of his struggles before stardom, adding that he worked under the sun to promote a product in Ogun state.

The 24-year-old also revealed that there was a time in his life that he had only one shoe, which was a fake designer shoe, and that was what made him vow to always buy shoes whenever he becomes successful.

In his words; “Sometimes I felt everything should just end because it was difficult.

“I remember after secondary school, I didn’t have money, I was looking for a job. I remember going for a full month looking for a job.

“I would prepare my CV. There was a time I trekked from Ilaje to Sabo in search of a job with my friend. We submitted our CVs but didn’t get the jobs eventually.

“I eventually got a job to promote products for a company under the sun. They took us to redeem camp in Ogun state, it was difficult. We were paid N5000 a week.

At that point, life was hard, I remember I only had one Nike shoe and it was fake. So, one promise I made to myself was that when I finally blow, I’ll always buy shoes.

“So, these days, when I’m down, I just step out to buy shoes. Life was more difficult than failing an exam or owing school fees.

“There was a particular time this happened to me. I’ll just say when a child is owing school fees, don’t call the child out. Just tell the child not to go to school.

“Don’t flog kids for owing school fees, the child doesn’t have money. School owners should not embarrass a child for owing school fees.

“It was really embarrassing for me at the time because it affected my esteem at that point.”

Nigerian singer-songwriter, Joseph Akinfenwa, better known as Joeboy, has said that his hit song, Alcohol, was not released to promote alcholism.

Ever since the track hit the air waves, it has been greeted with diverse reactions, and has even triggered #Alchoholchallenge on social media which sees youths drinking alcohol and some harmful liquids and this led to some unfortunate incidents.

However, in an interview with an online platform, Genius, Joeboy stated that that was not his intention.

He said; “Being tipsy inspired ‘Alcohol’. There are different challenges in life; it never ends. There is always something one needs to fix or solve. I am not encouraging alcoholism in any way but I understand that people need breaks but trying to run away from one’s problems won’t fix them at the end of the day.”

Sharing his thoughts on the success of the song, he said; “It is really special for me, seeing how big the song is becoming and how big it is going to get. It was a different step (direction) in my sound. It’s not like the regular Joeboy sound that people are used to. I am more or less known as a lover boy. I am not saying it’s a bad thing but I wanted to explore different sounds. Alcohol is the first step in evolving my sound.”

The singer, also admitted that he was nervous before the song was released.

He said; “I was a bit nervous before the song was released because I was not sure if people were going to accept it. It is totally different from what I normally do. The reception has been amazing so far. It is my biggest charting song since the beginning of my career.”