Nigerian scientist turned opera star Omo Bello has performed on world acclaimed opera stages and holds several prestigious accolades which includes 1st prize in the coveted Luciano Pavarotti Giovani 2010 competition and in 2013 she was awarded with Italy’s international Arca d’Oro prize.
On this edition of GLAMOUR: Women in Charge series the opera singer speaks to us about her music influences and breaking into the global performing arts industry.
GLAMOUR: When and what inspired your love for music?
Omo: As far back as I can remember, music has been my passion. It can be quite easy to know a child who has musical talents, especially singing talents, because that's the child who will not stop singing! As a matter of fact, I dare say ALL children love singing. You'll notice this in babies; they tend to gurgle and babble in tune. Those adorable sounds and cooing…All music!
We are born to make music; to sing, and dance. It is also interesting to see how a toddler will break out some dance moves, when he hears some random rhythmic beats or lively music, intuitively. We are made to sing and dance; it is ESSENTIAL to our being.
As a little child, I would memorise all of the tunes and lyrics of the musical comedies Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, etc. Anyone who missed a word or tune of the songs to my hearing got corrected immediately by me. I was the go-to person for the correct lyrics of a song at school. Maranatha! Music record label produced so many wonderful children's Gospel VHS and cassette tapes that enthralled me and my siblings when we were children.
In those days, in your regular middle class Nigerian homes, the usual practice was to rent VHS cassette tapes at the "video clubs". My mother would rent the tapes at the “video clubs”, or even at the library. During the limited periods of time, it was rented for, we would watch the tapes over and over again for hours on end, soaking it all up like sponges. I would thereafter re-enact my own singing and dancing performance outside. There was a big garden in our family house, and my make-shift microphones were the broken branches from the trees; the garden full of trees provided the audience and stage for me to redo the moves that I had watched. I remember vividly seeing myself as THE singing star, with the lights and cameras on me, and would either drag my siblings into the performance act, or mostly carry on alone, since they tired easily, or didn’t meet up to my perfectionist standards. It wasn't so serious for them, but it was extremely important to me.
Growing up in Nigeria, I recall retrospectively, how it is not unusual on the streets of Lagos to see a man or lady walking down the street, and then suddenly break into some dance moves, whilst singing along to the music drifting out of the nearby Barber's shop. A passer-by could even join him, and there and then a little fun gathering materialises. I guess music still retains that spontaneity in African culture, and music is not an art apart, reserved for closed formal spaces. It’s literally inseparable from everyday life.
GLAMOUR: You are a trained scientist, what started your journey to becoming a Soprano?
Omo: When you are born in Lagos into a middle-class Nigerian family, your career choices can be literally defined in 4 words: Medicine, Engineering, Law and Finance. My journey into the biological sciences (as a cell biologist and geneticist) was the first step towards becoming a medical doctor. At the time, one simply could not seriously envisage a career path in the performing arts, risking being tagged a disgrace to the family or worse still, a freak of nature as was the case with me and my bizarre preferences for classical music.
In Nigeria, there is neither a Music Conservatoire nor opera house. The best one can hope for with classical music pursuits is to be a fairly good amateur performer, whilst pursuing a "regular" career. Such amateurs get to perform in local classical music circles, which turn around the same few locations, as well as at church.
I essentially lived a "double life": scientist by day, musician by night. I remember vividly what University exam season was like for me in that double life: I would attend or perform in shows which typically take place at night, getting back home quite late. Then I would read into the early hours of the morning, coffee being a welcome help. By sunrise, I would freshen up and head off to write very important University exams, with only an hour of sleep or so in me, but so much exciting music in my veins. You can only imagine my utmost frustration at this double existence, but the deal I struck with my father was that I would get to keep at my musical activities as long as the academic grades were not affected. I indeed kept my promise, and got my B.Sc. with a GPA of over 4.2 out of 5. I even worked for a little while at the national medical research laboratory, that little work experience being the deal breaker or fate-sealer as it were for me. You see, I very distinctly remember working in the lab one fine day, possibly carrying out a PCR test, and as I was handling the tubes and pipettes, I was absent mindedly thinking to myself: "Is this really what you're going to be doing with your life?" I felt this profound discomfort because I knew deep down that I was not meant to be in a science lab. No matter how brilliant my academic scores showed I was, I felt so uncomfortable and somewhat miserable in that space. I WANTED FREEDOM TO ONLY SING!
In my 3rd year at the University of Lagos, during another exam season, I received a phone call from my vocal coach and teacher to sing at an impromptu concert informally organized at the MUSON School of Music for the visiting cultural attaché of the French Embassy, Jean-Yves Gillon. The Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) is the go-to place for the small community of classical musicians in Lagos. It was on that brief call that we agreed hastily that I sing the aria “If God be for Us” from The Messiah by G.F. Handel. The following day, a few of us students of the School of Music sang for an audience of 3 people. Jean-Yves Gillon, unbeknownst to me, left that little concert deeply touched by the voice, my voice. He took it upon himself to get me a French government scholarship to study singing in France up to the Masters Level at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Mind you, promises had to be kept, and so I completed my final year of University studies, and wrote a lengthy thesis on a bacterial organism that co-habits with humans. I completed the requirements for my degree by literally defending my B.Sc. thesis on a certain Friday in August 2005, and was on a plane out of Lagos headed for France 2 days later to start my new journey.
GLAMOUR: Was it hard to break into the industry as a young black woman?
Omo: I honestly believe anybody can break into this industry with a lot of sheer hard work, time and chance. I left Nigeria at the age of 21, having completed a B.Sc. in Cell Biology and Genetics, and had to start afresh in Classical Singing at the conservatoire, working with colleagues who had started their formal music journey at the age of 5. I had a huge backlog of cultural mastering and knowledge acquisition to catch up with, not to talk of the French language I had to learn so as to study in a French conservatory of music.
To be frank, being self-aware of my blackness was the very least of my problems. I was like a starving lion, devouring as much music as I could come across. I spent many hours at the library, in the practice studios; I used to be literally escorted out of the Conservatoire by the concierge, as I would be the last person left in the building and they needed to lock the place up and go home. I would sit in my teachers’ class rooms, and listen to all of their students, one by one, soaking up all I could from other peoples’ voice lessons. I soaked up tons and tons of recordings. During school breaks and summer breaks, I would go to master classes, vocal workshops, summer academies, concerts, operas… it was non-stop; no rest, no breaks. Then it was on to the international music competitions and auditions and a lot of traveling to expand my contact base. I knew that it all had to be built from scratch. My entire existence revolved around Music. What else could I do, I happened to have found myself halfway around the world, far away from home, family and everyone I knew, embarking on a hitherto unimaginable journey.
Breaking into the performing arts industry is a complex combination of many events that seem unrelated individually, but all come together to give rise to an artistic career; this is why no two artistic careers are the same, and it is difficult to precisely give a road-map as to how the next person can go about it. In my case, I never underestimate the power of the Divine to bring together all the pieces of this wacky puzzle. There are those who were divinely placed in my path to help me along the way, and I call them my “angels”. I see the opportunities that these angels afforded me as a God-given responsibility to be taken very seriously.
I think the industry has such an international and global reach. In fact, even smaller opera houses tend to have an international cast. This has opened up opportunities for people from all over the world, but one has to have a fighting chance, by being equipped with the skills and education required. The lack of structures that can enable Africans in general to acquire these skills and thereafter attain heights in the industry seems to me to be the principal problem.
A reputable voice doctor in Paris once said to me that Africans or people of African origin and morphology have a more superior vocal instrument. This has to do with the structure of our faces, and shapes of our bones. That is just the way it is. No wonder the greatest choirs on earth are on this continent. You can only imagine the limitless possibilities that can arise from tapping into this “advantage” that we have naturally, by way of honing these great talents, and sending them out to the world.
GLAMOUR: What are some of the traits that make a great soprano singer?
Omo: A true artiste needs to have the humility to acknowledge that it’s a perpetual learning process; to admit that one has never "arrived". There's a saying that a performer is only as good as his last performance, and that saying holds so true in this art form. Irrespective of the previous accolades, it’s very deeply humbling to realise that you cannot rest on your oars.You have performed and impressed at some of the greatest opera halls and festivals in the world, in the beginning of your career, did you envision this for yourself? and how does it make you feel?
I love singing and making music; I always have. That is my principal driving force: I sing in the shower, sing in the car, for the sheer pleasure of it. I even used to sing whilst walking down the street, but after several awkward stares from passers-by in Paris, I promptly learnt to control myself! As an amateur singer in Lagos, I had no idea of what this voice, my voice was all about. With knowledge and experience, I learnt that there are vocal qualities that make a voice unique, exceptional, of a certain colour, timbre, weight, and voice type. These characteristics of the voice, as well as the voice itself are a gift; no singer can claim ownership of the gift. Anytime I am told that I have a particularly beautiful voice, a noble voice, I am reminded of the fact that I had no say in how this gift came to be.
GLAMOUR: In your opinion, what factors can contribute in promoting the arts, especially opera in Africa?
Omo: Infrastructure! Infrastructure!! Infrastructure!!! I believe that the formalization of the mostly informal musical art forms in Africa will greatly structure the instruction, production, and promotion of those said arts. This goes for opera, as well as other art forms. I believe children should be the major area of focus for instruction, because they have a fighting chance in the globally competitive musical scene. For this reason, I founded a music foundation for children in Africa, The Omo Bello Music Foundation, and hope to do a lot more in the coming years. Emphasis needs to be on intensifying art/music programs in regular schools. Art is not something that is apart. Art is life; a child dances before he walks, he sings before he talks, and he draws before he writes.
GLAMOUR: What words or saying do you live by?
Omo: That depends on a particular moment in my life. Right now, it is: All things work together for good!
*Connect with Omo Bello on Instagram @omo_bello
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