KISS DANIEL SPEAKS WITH PUNCH ON HE'S CARRIER

As an undergraduate of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, where he studied water engineering, popular singer, Kiss Daniel (real name Oluwatobiloba Daniel Anidugbe), had to divide his time between studies and song writing.



Although he was passionate about music and sometimesdreamed of a future brightened with a successful music career, his studies actually came first in his personal scale of preference.

The result was that, unlike many other singers who dropped out of school to embrace music and stardom, Daniel graduated from the university with a Second ClassUpper degree in 2013.

The following year, he took the music scene by storm with the hit song,Woju.

Recalling the past, he says, “If I had failed to find a records label that would be willing to sign me on, after completing youth service, I would have moved on to the United Kingdom for a Masters degree and afterwards, searched for a job as initially planned.”

The singer, easily one of the youngest in Nigeria to make it to the top spot at 21, thinks that his success is divinely ordained.

“The fact that I got a records label during youth service and not when I was still in school shows there is a reason for it. It is as if everything is perfectly timed. If I had found a label when I was an undergraduate, I definitely would have dropped out of school. But I thank God that everything has happened at the right time,” he says.

Most people might wonder where this young man, is called ‘Kiss’. But he says, in an interview with our correspondent, that it was originally a pseudonym given to him by his friends and admirers back in the university.

He says, “I come from a family of artists. My late dad was a painter who also did a bit of songwriting on the side. My sister works with Cool FM as a presenter and my brother is a fashionista. You can see that my family is well grounded in creativity. Besides, dad always encouraged us to be self-employed. He would tell us to use our God-given talents to make a living for ourselves. So when I was starting out as a music artiste he supported me.”

Unfortunately, he lost his father about two months ago. Before the sad event, he had enjoyed a special relationship with him – something that was a shade deeper than a normal father-son relationship.


Contrary to an online report, Kiss Daniel denies ever endorsing gay marriage. “I don’t know where people got that information. I have never supported gay marriage. Why would I do that?” he says.