Bisola Aiyeola, the 1st runner up of the popular Big Brother Naija Show is quite energetic, talented and well loved by fans of the reality TV show. She is a Nigerian-British actress, singer, MC and presenter. Aiyeola studied Business management at National Open University of Nigeria and is one of Nigeria’s budding Nollywood’s finest. Her fame began when she contested in the 2008 edition of MTN Project Fame. She is a great mimic and has done a lot of comedy skits and is well known on Instagram. Bisola is a voice over artist and a one time TV host of Billboard Nigeria which aired on silver bird television from 2011-2013. The vivacious entertainer is a single mom with a 7-year-old daughter. Abisola is part of the radio station WFM 91.7 (Nigeria’s 1st Radio station for WOMEN and their families).
She believes that “just because women don’t have as much physical strength as men doesn’t mean they cannot take on as much responsibility”.
She is a mother driven with everyday passion to make the world a better place for her daughter, for every girl child and for every child. Her motto is to be happy always and live each day like it’s the last. She is ecstatic to be part of the WFM91.7 movement. Bisola is beautiful, delectable & She is passionate. She is brilliant and embarrassingly funny. A while back Abisola spoke to City People Magazine about her life and career. In this interview, she reveals what you don’t know about her.
Can you share with us how you got into media?
Radio is something I have always wanted to try and lay my hands on. I am an actress, I am a singer, and I have spoken to a lot of people and they are like you have a nice voice, have you tried going on radio? And I said no, I will think about it. So I heard about WFM, I decided to apply. And out of one thousand and five hundred, I was shortlisted. I went through a series of interviews, I made it, and here I am today.
What do you do?
I am an anchor person, I am an on air personality like every person knows it, but I am an anchorperson for WFM.
What do you present?
My belt starts from 4 to 8 p.m. and it is called the Evening Experience from WFM.
So how did you train for Radio?
The company trained us, the main anchor. After they have chosen the voices, the company trained us.
How many months now?
Today is the first day we are putting our voices on Radio. It is been test transmission. We are still having test transmission, we can’t have our programmes running yet. So we just putting our voices and let people hear what it sounds like and give us feedback where they are listening from. But it is been interesting, because I started work in October; it kicked off officially in October.
Tell us about your growing up days and the journey so far?
I was born in England but I was brought back to Nigeria as a child. I think for the acting, it was a family trait. When we are having any gathering, we don’t do music to entertain one another, all we do is just make each other laugh by one person mimicking the other. I was a contestant at MTN Project Fame West Africa in 2008 that was the first edition, Iyanya won, I came 5th position. So it was from that show a lot of people got to like me, “eh! Bisola, you are a fantastic singer at the same time you can act, have you ever tried at it?” A couple of directors worked in that project to show my acting skill in their movies. And from there I started to go for audition and that was how the acting career started.
Asides acting, you also make people laugh, how do you pull that off?
I would not really call myself a comedian but I enjoy making people around me laugh.
Before radio, what were you into?
Yes, I was actually a TV presenter for Billboard Nigeria. I worked there for about 2 years before the show stopped airing. I enjoy talking, talking is fun for me, it is something I love doing, like I can go on and on, sometime some people would say, don’t you have a pause bottom or a stop bottom. I enjoy talking and being part of WFM is amazing, it is fresh, it is new, I have been given the chance to show my skills. I have been trained to be a broadcaster and I am happy to be part of this family. So it is something I have always wanted to do and yes I have been given the platform to show myself.
How well can you go?
You know when you do what you love, it doesn’t feel like you are working, it is like breathing, you are not taking so much energy doing it. So that is how it is. The more I enjoy what I do, you can’t put a time frame to it like I will be here for 2 years, I am going to be here for 3 years. You can end up spending the whole of your life doing it, especially when you are enjoying what you are doing, so far I am enjoying it, like I can’t wait to get on my shift in a couple of minutes. I am excited, this is my first time to speak on WFM.
When you were young, what did you think of doing?
I remember when I was 13 years old, and I was changing schools, I was in Federal Government College in far away Osun State, my mum decided to bring me to Lagos and I remember having an interview with the principal and I was asked Bisola, what would you like to be when you grow up? I remember I said I wanted to be an entertainer and my mum gave me the knock of my life on my head because she wanted me to be a Lawyer, that knock rang in my head for a couple of days but I think I always see myself as an entertainer. Even if I meet with my old class mate, they are like Bisola, this is something you have always done, you have always made us laugh, you always entertained us. Instead of me writing my own note, I will dictate to the class. You know, the teacher will just “Bisola, are you around, just have this, dictate to the class.”
It is something I wanted to do, I enjoy to sing, like I said, I am a singer, I am an actress. Now I am broadcaster, don’t say Jack of all trade! This is what I love to do. It is a talent, I am still working because talent is not enough, hard work has to be put into it, so, I am still working hard every day. I enjoy being on stage, acting, I enjoy being behind the camera which I am acting now. I am enjoying being on radio where no one can see me and I can just be myself.
I can see you are so excited, how prepared are you for the challenges ahead?
It’s not easy, like I said, already I have some challenges as an actress, there are certain places you can’t go to, there are certain things you don’t do because you have the media on you but for this, I say it is been careful, be prepared for anything. You will be criticized, you will be praised, never ever let the praise get to your head. There is always someone before you who have done it better than you and there is still a fresher behind you, that will do it better than you, so you should never misuse any opportunity that you get each day as your last, put in your best, you never know where this can take you to. So I always want to remember where I am coming from, where I am going to, people I am trying to reach, I want to be a role model to people, so what kind of role model do I want to be? A good one or a bad one. Do I want people to look up to me in a good way?
How did your parent take your choice of career?
My father is late, my mum has always seen this, she accepted it at my young age. I think this is what Bisola wants to do, let me just allow her, so she is proud of me, she is one of my flag bearers, she is always promoting me, oh Bisola, have you heard her, she is going to be on at so so time, even if she is not listening, she would make phone calls. So my mum is 250 per cent in support of what I am doing.
Who is your role model in this profession?
It’s my boss I think, when I met her, just listening to her, you know that moment when you just get caught up, she is asking me a question, I could hear her at the same time I could not hear her, I am in awe with how she talks, how she commands. I will say Mrs. Bimbo Oleyede is someone I have always loved as a broadcaster. For actors, and actresses, Joke Silva, I love her so much. There are couple of young actors and actresses like Kehinde Bankole, I look up to her so much, she is a friend, she encourages you, singer. I love Waje so much.
