My mother was a great inspiration to my music – Alariwo

Couple of weeks ago, veteran Nigerian musician, Rotimi Martins, popularly known as Alariwo of Africa announced the death of his mother on his social media account.

In an exclusive chat with The Punch, the singer said his mother; Mrs. Josephine Nmabuese slipped and fell on a staircase. She was 74 when she passed.

He said, “My mother was 74 years old when she died. What really happened was that she took a stroll and when she returned home, she slipped on the stairs and fell. By the time they took her to the hospital, it was too late as she had passed on. After some medical investigation, we learnt that her blood pressure and sugar level was quite high.”

The singer said that when his mother was alive, she was a great inspiration to his music career. He told The Punch that his mother counseled him to introduce proverbs from their native dialect in his songs.

“When it comes to my music, my mother encouraged me in so many ways especially during the early stage of my career. In all my songs, I always speak in my native language and it was my mother that inspired that. She used to send proverbs to me in our native language and I use those proverbs in my song. She advised me to infuse the proverbs in my songs.  Even before she died, I was working on a song where I also infused the recent proverbs she sent to me,” Alariwo said.

The veteran Nigerian singer, Oluwarotimi Martins, popularly known as Alariwo was born on September 4, 1969 to parents who hail from Delta state. He is married with 3 children. The singer revealed that he made his entrance into the music industry in 1987. Alariwo became a household name when he dropped his hit single, Yawa go gas which was followed by Boju Boju, an equally successful track.