Goldie: Exit of a dogged fighter

The Nigerian singer died on Thursday in Lagos. Mention one Nigerian artiste who is constantly the butt of jokes on major social media sites and late Goldie Harvey stands out as a ‘veteran,’in this regard.

Right from the onset of her music career around 2006, she was never regarded as a ‘serious artiste’ with a bold few describing her as being all glamour but no package.

Some others were quick to condemn her craft or lack of it. During her lifetime, all it took a blogger to drive traffic to his/her site, was putting up a picture of the Ekiti-State born artiste.

Popular ‘blog crawlers’ can testify to this as such posts were bound to elicit a deluge of negative comments.

She proved cynics wrong by marching on, undeterred, unabashed and unshakeable releasing singles after singles.

Guilty of never ever giving the late pop star a chance, celebrity publicist, Samuel Olatunji, said, ”Despite the ‘pull-her-down’ at all costs syndrome, Goldie kept pushing the envelope, working and living her life. If she cared about what people said about her, she didn’t show it. They would lambast her for wearing a particular dress and Goldie would defiantly wear something similar next time. They said she was everywhere, strutting the red carpets like a pepper seller but she was undeterred. Goldie was living her life by her rules and not by what ‘almighty’ commentators said.”

Speaking further, Olatunji added that, ”As if she knew she won’t be here for a long time. I was told a popular producer had told her to go sell her Benz ML before he would sign her on and produce her song. And that was after months of keeping her waiting. She didn’t relent but decided to take her destiny in her own hands and thus embarked on a journey from one radio station to another, buying stuffs for the OAPs for her songs to get airplay.”

The true test of her humane and patient nature was brought to the fore during the last Big Brother Africa competition.

From inception, the choice of the pop singer as one of Nigeria’s flag flyers at the reality show generated mixed reactions.

With fans full of high expectations, especially since she was the last man standing from Nigeria, Goldie, sometimes referred to as ‘Lady Gaga of Nigeria’, was shown the door after 70 days in the house.

Then, she appeared to have incurred the wrath of Nigerians who were disappointed by her outing when compared to the impressive show put up by Ola and Chris, prior to their shocking voluntary exit.

Although a lot was expected from the singer, whose iconic eyelashes have been an integral part of her personality, in the Big Brother House, she chose to follow her heart.

With countless emotional breakdowns and on-and-off romance with fellow housemate, Prezzo, cited as some of her greatest undoing, Goldie could not be bothered.

She was so much in love with the Kenyan rapper that she once saved him from possible eviction. Unknown to her, Prezzo had nominated her for eviction two weeks earlier, but luckily she survived it.

Unforgiving Nigerian fans were further angered by the fact that Goldie appeared to have lost focus and could not see through Prezzo’s strategy of using her to stay on in the competition.

Thankfully, at the end of the day, all appeared to have paid off, as the Kenyan Masai warrior, flew down to Nigeria after the BBA competition, to ask for forgiveness and propose to our dear Goldie.

Rumours of a wedding in the offing trailed the lovebirds, who chose to keep mum, despite various allegations.

She might not have been regarded for her vocal prowess or singing ability, but the light skinned pop star had some of the best music videos, wore one of the best costumes around and never failed to showcase an amazing stage dexterity and craft, anyday, anytime.

As fans and critics alike mourn the passage of the star, we all can take a cue from her dogged nature, which helped in shaping her music career.

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