''Holy Spirit Inspires My Verses And Songs'' Ani - Nominee Of Stars Parade Voice Competition Organized By Frank Edward

Ani, Nominee of On Stars Parade Voice Competition Organized By Frank Edward, In This Interview Talks About The Competition.

El:  Let’s meet Ani

Ani: My name is Anthony Ani Offiong aka ANI. I am a gospel music minister. I'm from Odukpani LGA in Cross River State, Nigeria. Born 22nd July in the early 90s into music loving family; my dad belonged to a band in his days, my immediate elder and eldest brothers play the drums and bass guitar very well.

El: How did it all start with you musically?

Tony: I never chose music, music came naturally as I started singing at a tender age back then I'd try to rap or sing along to anything and everything I heard which sounded like music. Growing up I was exposed to almost every genre of music courtesy my dad who was and still is a lover of good music. I mostly heard a lot of Bob Marley, Lucky Dube and Fela songs because my dad was a huge fan of them. Later I was exposed to songs by hip hop acts like 50 cents and several notable Nigerian acts. This to a large extent has till date influenced my choice of genre in music. So now my major genres are Hip Hop, Reggae/Dancehall. I know my music background is way different from what you would normally hear. But you see, not everyone started from the choir and dreamt of singing like Kirk Franklin. I only joined the choir three years ago, I have learnt so much since then and I am still learning till date. Being in a choir is very key for every gospel act.

I started out as a secular act in 2010, writing hip hop/rap songs. I wrote a bunch of hip hop songs just for fun. Then I was known as ANI'mated, I recorded my first song in 2011 - a dancehall song but did not promote it properly, which I'm glad I did not because I later rededicated my life to Christ in 2012 and everything changed. I still wanted to do my style of music but I wanted to do it for Jesus this time. I started doing gospel hip hop. I changed my stage name to Ani (my middle name). I was part of a group called "DAX Gospel", our sound was different, and people loved and were blessed by our songs. I was the lead songwriter/lyricist on the team; we experimented with lots of genres because we were versatile. Soon we started headlining events at our home church and even emerged the best gospel music group at the 2013 CGMAs. Fast forward to 2016, I am now a solo artiste, I've learnt a lot over the years, I still have a lot to learn but now I'm better prepared for the next stage of my career.

El: What Drives the Kind of Music You Do?

Ans: What drives the kind of music I do is first the message; I make sure I do not make music simply because I can, I make music as I am inspired. There has to be a powerful message in every song. Secondly unbelievers have tagged gospel music as boring, this is not true but to change that mentality I have decided to make music in genres that will appeal more to them with the same powerful word-inspired message because at the end of the day, the gospel is first for the unbelievers.

El: Where Do You Get Your Inspiration From?

Ans: The Holy Spirit inspires my every verse and every song. I may get an idea about a song from a sermon or life event but whenever I want to write; I ask the holy spirit to take over. Often times when I'm done writing I'm amazed and I'd often tell myself that there is no way I could have written all these on my own. "I am not that good". Sometimes I hear the song in my dream but mist times when I wake up can only remember the tune. Still working on mastering that.

El: Tell Us about the Competition.

Ans: Its for gospel music artistes. It is called Stars Parade Voice On It Competition. Frank Edwards organized it to help up and coming gospel acts. He made an instrumental and asked us to go write and record on it. After some screening, the best 15 were chosen and I happen to be one of them. Its just left for me to get enough votes so I can win. The star prize is a mini studio. That's a big one!

El: There Is So Much Confidence In You That You Will Win In The Competition, What Is Driving You?

Ans: Well I have very supportive family and friends. I am a member of the Christian Talents Community, I belong to the most supportive church choir I know - the Elevation Priests Of Praise, I also have friends who have gone out of their way to solicit for votes on my behalf. Big S/O to Chinedu Kejeh and Divine Tonkeye - these guys have shown massive support in every single move I've made in my journey so far. God bless them. BUT! We all know other contestants have friends too! So I want to seize these opportunity to ask you reading this to kindly vote for me please as winning will bring me a step closer to my dreams. To vote:

*Kindly log on to http://starsparade.com/voic/vote/

*Scroll down to where you have the names of contestants.

*Tick/select my name - "ANI"

*Input your name and email in the boxes provided.

*Tick the reCaptcha check box and verify.

*Submit.

Thanks a million.

El: What Is The Future Like?

Ans: The future is bright, I see God using me to win more souls into the kingdom via my music. Right now, my genre of music hasn't gained full acceptance yet by many who have an idea of what gospel music should sound like but I see all of that changing in the future as well. Thank you sir.

El: Thank you Ani for your time and we pray all the best for you.