Her sonorous voice has endeared her to fans both home and abroad. More so, no Christmas/New year period is complete without the hit track, ‘Odun Nlo Sopin’ rocking the airwaves.
Mrs.Deborah Adebola Fasoyin, who started leading the Good Women Choir group at age 37, has turned 80 years old and is billed to be celebrated in a very special ceremony that will hold today, Tuesday 25th of February, 2020 at the Graceway Chapel International, LASU-Igando Road, Lagos.
Her constituents, notable Nigerian gospel artistes, will be converging on the premises to honour the ageless woman whose dexterity on the song of salvation since her first attempt, ‘Halleluyah Oh Halle’ in 1977, has continued to remind us of our youth days, God and hereafter.
Leading the pack are Gospel music veterans like Evangelist Ayewa Adelakun, Evangelist Bola Are, Evangelist Dunni Olanrewaju, and young generation stars like Tope Alabi, Mike Abdul, Lanre Teriba, Esther Igbekele, among others, just as anointed men of God would also be on hand to minister.
‘Odun Nlo Sopin’, the 1979 hit that registered the group in our consciousness, was followed in sequence by more powerful numbers like ‘Tire Lagbara’, ‘Bi mo ba fowokan (Iseti aso re)’, among others.
Speaking on how she feels about the enduring nature of Odun Nlo Sopin, Mama Fasoyin, who loves to be addressed as ‘Sweet 16’, said;
”It’s been great. The fact that it has touched so many lives gives us great joy. More so, the demand for the song hasn’t stopped till date and I’ve lost count of the number of copies that we’ve sold.”
She must have made a lot of money from the sales of the album, she was asked:
”It doesn’t work that way,” she declared. ”The money from the albums sale belongs to the group and that’s what we use for the movement.
Does she compose the songs for the group alone?, the woman who is an epitome of honesty and humility, said; ”Not at all. I don’t even compose our songs, the group does. We all sit down and write all the songs that we have made into albums.”
Mrs. Fasoyin noted that the group doesn’t really record for profits and doesn’t charge for booking when invited to perform anywhere, saying money realized from album sales is used for the gospel.
She concluded by saying every member of the choir since 1977 is alive and ageing well.
-Oyin Princess