Singer Teniola Apata aka Teni has stated she initially presumed her elder sister, Niniola, who is also a singer, was envious of her singing talent due to critical remarks of her (Teni’s) voice.
Teni reminisced about practice sessions with her sisters as a child while speaking in an episode of the “Tea With Tay” podcast.
She explained while their eldest sister, Doyin, commended her voice, describing it as melodic, Nini always insisted it wasn’t ‘sweet’, telling her not to be deceived by the former’s complimentary remarks.
Eventually, she was able to ‘blow’ Nini’s mind after an impressive performance at school, which she replicated when she got home.
She however admitted she was able to achieve that after she implemented Nini’s advice to always sing ‘from her stomach’.
“My elder sister, the one that’s older than Nini (Niniola), Doyin, maybe she was deceiving because she didn’t want to hurt me; she used to tell me I have a melodic voice whenever I sang during my childhood”, Teni recounted.
“Nini, on the other hand, would tell me my voice isn’t sweet. So, I thought she was jealous of me.
“She (Niniola) called me aside and told me not to let Doyin deceive me. She now said, ‘You sing from your stomach.’ So, every time Nini sings, I would watch her sing. So, I also started singing from my stomach.
“There was a time my school organised an event, I sang and the whole school stood up and was clapping for me. I said, ‘I’ve arrived.’
“I went back home to tell Nini that I sang in school and everybody was clapping and she said I should sing what I sang. I sang it and Nini too clapped for me. I said, ‘Okay, we are up to something.’”
