Talk of one top gospel musician making waves at events and the music scene today and Laolu Gbenjo’s name would be among the names that will first come to mind. He is known for his special kind of gospel music called Alujo Special. His brand of Gospel music is indeed special. It is what many want to listen to and dance to as they praise God.
Laolu Gbenjo and his Alujo Special band are up there, rocking the industry and virtually everybody is thrilled by their performance on stage. Whenever Laolu Gbenjo and his band mount the stage, the audiences already know that they are in for massive entertainment. The highly energetic gospel band thrills their audiences with lots of captivating displays and dance steps. They hold spellbound as the audiences have no choice but to watch them do their thing while they sing to praise God. It is never a dull moment with the popular gospel band. Indeed, they are the toast of many music concerts and top events in town.
Laolu Gbenjo’s exploits in gospel music is worthy of note. It earned him the highly revered City People Award of Excellence in 2020. But due to the nature of the year which was ravaged by COVID 19, Pandemic, he could not come for the awards. Recently, Laolu Gbenjo stormed City People’s head office in Gbagada, Lagos to pick up his award. He was received by the Publisher, Seye Kehinde and his team of journalists. On receiving the award, he was interviewed. During the interview session, the musician spoke extensively about his music career, why he left music for about 7 years, how he came back and how the unfortunate COVID-19 pandemic turned around his music career for good. Details of all these could be read in the below excerpt. Sit back and enjoy the highly inspirational interview.
What is Laolu Gbenjo doing right now?
Right now we are preparing for our UK tour. We will be performing in London, Sheffield, and Manchester. That is Laolu Gbenjo right now.
How did you popularize and fine-tune your Alujo brand of gospel music?
The Alujo special, the LG band, started during the lockdown. Everybody was at home; the musicians, entertainers, bankers, and many others. There was nothing to do. I was broke and I didn’t want to beg anybody for money. So I had to come up with the idea of birthday shout-outs to celebrate people. When we sing and praise people, at least they will have something to share with family and friends since they couldn’t hold parties at that time. So that’s how the idea of Laolu Alujo specialist came about.
How were you able to make money from it since you weren’t getting shows due to the lockdown?
I remember the first one I did for somebody for 50k. I remember I had to pay for the studio, pay for the musicians and there was nothing remaining for me. Immediately after I posted it, a lot of people love it and I got a lot of requests from people to shout out for them, their loved ones, for their family, friends and others. I decided to take it further by making it big and lively. I also built my studio. With the Alujo, the charisma and the dance, people just love it. Then I began to up the game and up the fame. Once in a while, we released new songs. We released Oniduromi, Gratitude, and soon.
So in 2020, you were always sleeping in the studio. How did you cope?
Yes, I was always in the studio recording back to back. At one point my eyes were swollen because I was always in the studio. This was because we were performing for zoom, doing special recordings for churches, people, parties abroad, there dance tracks we recorded and many others.
Was it that same year you built your studio?
Yes, it was the year I built my studio. Before then I rented a studio. That same year I built my studio in Lekki.
Let’s talk about your band. Is it a new band or the same one you have always had with you?
No, they are the same guys that have been working with me since 2014.
Why 2014?
My story is a long story because I released my first album in 2008 with high hopes that I’m going to be getting invitations from churches, people buying my CDs and getting invitations for weddings and all that. But it was the other way round. So I was disturbed, I was discouraged. I stopped singing for about 7 years. So having been singing for 7 years, I remember I went to a friend’s album launch in 2013. I was called to say something about the guy, the project, his work and all that. So I raised a song and everybody loved the song I raised. A man of God walked up to me and said God said I should tell you that you have left your purpose. If you could trust Him again, He will help you. I was feeling what he was saying. You know, it’s a different thing that somebody would be giving you prophecy and you would disregard what he is saying in your mind. He said that to me to confirm what I was having in my spirit. So the biggest question was where I was going to start from having left the industry for 7 years. I had to raise my band again; my drummers, keyboardist, and talking drummer. So we had a meeting somewhere around Falomo and I told them that we have to go back to music. We have to do free shows, we have to do free events but I trust God that in the long run, God would help us. I remember in 2014, I did a concert at KICC. That is where I released the Dabira song “Baba Fayemi Dabira” that people sing everywhere today. So ever since then, we’ve been together since 2014.
Were you able to bring back everyone you originally started with?
Yes for the Musicians, the keyboardist, the drummer, I was able to get them back. So the girls joined later. The idea of the girls came during the lockdown. I remember I started the shout-out with guys only. People loved it and they were wowed. Then we had done a lot. So I said let me spice it up a little. We need to introduce girls to this team. And firstly, I introduced a girl, then I introduced another girl. I remember the first time I introduced a girl in my video, some people felt the girl danced a lot and we won’t watch your videos anymore. I think they were just having some imagination in their head. It was normal for fans to think that way. But we are here today to thank God for what he has done. In the last two years, it’s been God.
The 7 years when you took your break, what were you doing, and how did you keep yourself busy?
I was doing the business around music. I went into sound. I was doing sound rentals for people, for my friends who were singing, who were doing very well. Somehow I was not fulfilled. I was just fed up and disturbed that how could I go to the studio to produce and nobody is buying and churches don’t want to pay you. Coming back in 2014, I made up my mind that what discouraged me the first time I will not allow it to disturb me again. So when I was going for any performance, I didn’t put many expectations in money. I made my CDs free for everybody so that I won’t get discouraged that they didn’t buy my CDs. But somehow, God made a way.
In 2020 alone, how many shows did you record?
We recorded a lot o! It’s in the thousands.
Do you mean in 2020 alone?
Yes
How about in 2021?
It doubled that. Of course, that’s because of the new studio.
Is that why you were practically living in the studio at that time?
The studio is in my house. We do 3 am, and 2 am for people in Canada and the US.
What has kept the classic Laolu Gbenjo band up there?
My mind is open to receiving from God and from the people around me. I don’t say I must be the only one who will bring ideas. Everybody in my band contributes. When I hear an idea, a song or a piece, I would say let’s work around this. I get ideas from my experience, from what is going on around me, my environment and everything.
When you were coming into music professionally, who were the musicians at the time that you were thinking of fashioning your kind of music after those you were looking up to?
In church music, they are Gbenga Adenuga and Sammy Okposo. Something happened to me. There was a time that I prayed to God. I was fasting for 3 days and prayed that God should give me a name. I was praying that God should give me a name even in Lagos. I remember about the third day, I had a revelation that I was invited for a mini show of about 10 people. I just went to that event casually, wearing knickers. Then I realized that King Sunny Ade was also invited to that same event. And when Baba came, it was a forklift that was offloading his instrument and I was like; 10-people event? And I heard a voice; that is the secret. He prepared for all his events. No event is small. So I was always watching him and I always trusted God that one day I would even have more and more. Now I have a sound system that can cover any stadium you can talk about.
