Segun Arinze, the renowned Nigerian actor, has revealed how he got his stage name.
The film actor, who was initially known as Segun Aina, stated that he changed his stage name to ‘Segun Arinze’ in 1991 while pursuing a music career.
The popular Nollywood star spoke during a recent interview with Biola Bayo on the ‘TalktoB’ podcast.
He recounted;
“I was also singing. In 1991, I was told someone wanted to sign me. ‘We are going to sign you on’. He came from Sony Music. So he called me and I signed the contract. He signed. And then he said ‘Okay we are going to start recording’,” he said in a recent chat with Biola Bayo on the ‘TalktoB’ podcast.
“Went to Ife to do Dramatic Arts. My dad did not like the idea because he wanted me to be a lawyer. At a point in time, I thought he was not going to pay my school fees to go and read drama.“Then the National Theatre was running an open theatre then… ‘welcome new artiste Segun Arinze’. I said ‘excuse me sir what is this? I said why are you changing my name? The album came out – ‘Dreams’. Everywhere was ‘Segun Arinze, Segun Arinze. That was how the name got changed from Segun Aina to Segun Arinze in a nutshell”.
The 58-year-old movie star also disclosed the story behind his foray into the voice-over industry. Arinze recounted being introduced to voice acting by Soni Irabor, a renowned radio broadcaster. He fondly reminisced about earning N1,000 for his inaugural voice-over gig back in 1987.
“Soni Irabor walks in someday and he was looking for voice-over artiste. There was nobody around that day then he heard me speak,” he said.
“Then he said ‘You can do the voice’ Really? I cannot, he said ‘Yes, you can and I will see what you do’. And I did the voice-over. He paid me N1000. That was 1987. N1000 for just doing (voice-over). I said this is big. Coloured TV was N500 at that time.”
View this post on Instagram
In other news, Tobechukwu Ejiofor, a prominent Nigerian rapper and actor known as Illbliss, recently explained why he took a break from music to diversify.
The ‘King of Boys’ actor revealed that he has experimented with movies, documentaries, and other types of creation.
He further explained that being a father had a significant role in his decision to leave music.
Illbliss appeared as a guest on a recent edition of the hip TV show Trending, hosted by reality sensation KimOprah.
He stated:
“My two kids came miraculously. My first child was born eight years after I married my wife while my second daughter born during the COVID-19 lockdown. So I took time off to be a dad; to spend time with my family and raise my kids.
“Also, I was trying to find diversification. So I moved into television as well. I had done ‘King Of Boys’ a year before then and I just felt like I needed to produce more; shoot more films, documentaries and get into spaces where I could still express myself artistically without just putting out music.
“So, I took a break from music. All of these is what has been happening in the last four years.”
Leave a Reply