In the recent years, the gospel singer Lara George has won the hearts of Nigerian people all over the country with her beautiful and clear singing along with touching lyrics. This singer is widely considered to be the pride of Nigeria. Like any other singer, Lara George had to go through long and bumpy road to success. What was it like for this gentle, yet strong and confident woman?
Lara George biography: the history and education of the star
Lara George was born into a regular family in Lagos state. She was the fourth of five children to her parents. She attended Queens College, Lagos, and at the time, even though she was a member of the school’s choir who was greatly admired for her beautiful voice, she never knew she would pursue a musical career.
She then went on to study architecture in the University of Lagos. However, during her days in the university, she began to see herself as a potential talented singer. She joined a campus fellowship choir, where she sang together with other students.
She was lucky enough to become a member of the musical group Kush, which also included artists like Dapo Torimiro, Emem Ema and Ty Bello; they are all close friends who met on campus. Their music was influenced by western tunes and fetched them a lot of fans and achievements all over Nigeria. Unfortunately, the group was later disbanded, but for Lara George, it was only the beginning of her path to fame and success.
Lara George music and influence
After the band broke up, Lara took a break from music to get her thoughts together and understand which kind of music she would like to produce in order to be successful and not lose her own spark. The start of Lara’s solo career was celebrated with the release of her first album in 2007 called “Forever in My Heart”. This album included a song which became an absolute hit among her fans – “Ijoba Orun”.
Music critics pointed out that Lara might be a rising star and people are lucky to be witnessing her first steps to absolute success in the Nigerian music industry. She quickly gathered all the biggest awards in Nigeria including Best Vocals Female at the Hip Hop World Awards and Best Gospel Act at the Nigeria Entertainment Awards 2008. Nigeria Music Awards also crowned her Voice of the Year.
Following the huge success of her first album and single, she went on working hard on her next solo album, which was called “Lara George” and included a lot of hits like “Kolebaje” and “Halleluyah”. For this album, Lara collaborated with some of the most famous Nigerian producers like Wole Adesanya and Wole Oni, along with help from American producer Jeff Taylor, who worked with worldwide famous artists like Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson etc. Apart from the producers, some well-known Nigerian artists like Lord of Ajasa and Pat Uwaje King were also featured on her album.
Lara herself defined her music direction as ethnic contemporary or urban, with some elements of salsa, soul music and hip-hop. This album’s videos received a lot of nominations at the Nigeria Music Video Awards, including Best Gospel Video, Best Use of Special Effects, and Best Use of Animation. With the arrival of the second album, Lara officially became one of the most loved gospel music singers all over Nigeria.
Her next album, “HIGHER – the Dansaki album”, which was released in 2012 has achieved success as well, becoming the classic of Nigerian gospel music. Lara George herself became nominated for Crystal Awards in the Song of the Year and Female Gospel Artiste of the Year categories. Later, in London, at the Africa Gospel Music Awards annual ceremony, she was awarded the Female Artiste of the Year 2012.
Since 2013 she has won different nominations including Nigerian Female Vocalist of the Year; she however did not stop working, She released two albums in 2014, “Love Nwantintin” and “The Medley Album”, and another one in 2017 titled “A Slice of Heaven”. Apart from original music, Lara George also does covers of famous songs. In 2015, she successfully covered Adele’s worldwide hit song “Hello”.
Nowadays, she is one of the most influential singers in Nigeria and is part of the reasons for popularizing gospel music and promoting faith in God among Nigerian people. Lara is not overwhelmed with her success and says gospel music direction is not a style but a whole way of life for her.
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Personal life: Lara George's family
Lara George and her beloved husband
Apart from her stage fame, Lara George has succeeded in her family life as well. The singer is happily married to a lawyer, Gbenga George, who is also a music entrepreneur. She has two children with her husband - a daughter called Tiaraoluwa and a son called Adeoba Alexander.
Lara George, her husband, and children
She said that her overwhelming career once made her put off having children, however, she has learned to balance career and motherhood. The celebrity deeply cares about her family and spends every spare second with them. She says that faith has helped her to preserve her marriage even during the rough times. Basically, this woman is successful in every sphere of life.
Lara George says that her deep faith in God greatly helps her to release her influential songs. She is proud of calling herself a gospel artiste and says that she makes her music empowered by the word of God. She also adds that her purpose is to help people see God’s perspective on real life issues and show them that to gain great success you should work hard every day and understand that your success depends on you.
Her fans think of her as a woman who inspires them every day and that is her main goal – to give them hope and encouragement through her songs. She defines her success as something that she gained with God’s help and is planning to go on conquering the worldwide scene, not just Africa.
Lara George’s greatest ambition is winning a Grammy Award for her high-quality music and video releases, and knowing how this woman always puts her whole heart and soul into everything she does, we can only wish her success in all her endeavours.
READ ALSO: Latest Nigerian Gospel Songs 2017
Source: Naija.ng
ROSY CREST
Wednesday 22 November 2017