by Rachel Ogbu
Chidinma’s manager has described the talented artiste as “a balloon on top of lots of needles” considering the number of scandals in the media she’s been involved in this year.
“People want me to drop on those needles and get deflated. He told me to be careful. The first time was when my nude picture went viral. I actually went for a photo shoot for my friend. I wore a tube dress. Some mischief makers actually cropped off the lower part of the picture and posted it on the Internet. It was as if I was nude. I wasn’t happy at all. I had that picture. I had to post the real picture on the net and people now got convinced the nude picture wasn’t original. I thought that was the end, I didn’t know a bigger scandal was coming…” the gorgeous singer said in an interview recently.
Going more into details, Chidinma opened up about the sex tape scandal.
“I woke up one morning and I was greeted on the internet with ‘Chidinma and sex tape’. I was worried primarily because of my mother. I didn’t let her see the video but I had to show her the photos. I didn’t want to go out that day. I couldn’t go out. But my mum felt otherwise. She told me to ignore the mischief makers. I almost took some actions but I thought against it. I met Sound Sultan on a set. He told me, ‘Babe, you are now a star. I welcome you officially into the industry.’ I trended for three days. Even people who didn’t know me got to know me. My fan base grew. And then, I was happy because more than 90 per cent of the public didn’t believe I was the one in that video. There were people who didn’t need to see the video to believe I couldn’t have done such thing. I am just grateful to everyone who didn’t believe the story. My twitter account was hacked and the people created another account. They kept releasing nasty pictures and they were even responding to the tweets as if I was the one doing it. I was just watching and laughing. It put me in the spotlight. I used it for good.”
The singer described her new found fame as a bitter sweet experience. “It is a lot of work. People see me and envy me and say ‘ohhh, she is now a star and she must be enjoying’. I am not enjoying. The more you are there, the more you do things. The expectation is now so high. Being a star is not so much fun because you have to do more work. You have to please people. You have to smile even when you are not in the mood. It is so frustrating. But then, you owe it to some people, you have put yourself out there. This is what I have signed for. Nobody begged me to do this.
No doubt 2013 has been a very eventful year for the Kora award and Project Fame winner and the labels people try to define her by continue to come and go. “I am just Chidinma. I have tried to carve a niche for myself. I try to be different all the time.”
This is very true from how she’s delivered commendable work with hit after hit and come 2014, it would be interesting to see the next chapter of this budding star.
