We were lucky to catch up with Ogranya recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ogranya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful projects I have worked on had less to do with music and a lot to do with charity. With how overly saturated and transient entertainment has become, it is feeling less and less likely that one can actually do something of meaningful impact through songs. I could be wrong but it feels like we’ve evolved past times where a record like Michael Jackson’s ‘Heal The World’ would leave as much of a quantifiable imprint as it did. I’ve tried in my little way to make it a habit to be part of projects that tend to displaced children in Nigeria. Not directly, as I do not have the means, but by working and building relationships with people who’ve taken it upon themselves to protect and cater to the disenfranchised. Through music actually, I connected several years ago with a child’s rights activist, Tope Tokan-Lawal, who’s pretty much taken up the mantle to provide legal services for children being unjustly treated by the system. This amongst a host of other altruistic services she provides them had me inspired and leaves me feeling an ecclesial brand of fulfillment whenever I’m privileged to be a part of it – it’s why I find it meaningful.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Ogranya (pronounced or-gran-yah), an eclectic artist whose music fuses the tenets of Afrobeats, Soul, R&B, and Jazz. I was born in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. My music is a seamless fusion of English and Pidgin English that transports listeners through many unique but relatable immersive stories. My father was a musician who performed with the band “The Black Stones” in the ’70s and I am a trained architect. My musical influences include The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley

In 2021, I became the first African artist to put out a song every week with a project termed “Project 52”. I have opened for renowned acts such as Adekunle Gold, Asa, and PJ Morton of Maroon 5,

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding part of being an artist is having people connect with your work to the extent they tell you it helped them heal through a dark phase in their lives. It’s a beautiful feeling to have created something, and then you get to watch people (you’ve never been in contact with) find themselves and some solace in the words, stories, and melodies you’ve strung together. You often hear that existence is a single shared experience, but seeing it manifest is gratifying – a blessing.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I appreciate this question. As a songwriter, you become a listener by default. You’re perpetually listening and in a constant state of journaling. Thoughts, conversations, experiences, and the resultant emotions always make their way to your mind’s canvas or your soul’s data bank. It’s like you’re collecting material for work – nothing is fleeting. I’m not sure, but I think it’s empathy or the need to understand how people feel. This forces you to want to shut out a lot of the time and be on your own just from the sheer weight of everything you’ve been gathering and concurrently processing. Somewhere in the mix there, because of the subjective nature of music and entertainment, and the opinionated times we live in, you also have a lot of people advising you and lending you their thoughts as to how to go about your life, art, and career, granted some of it is love – and others, well, we’ll have to file that under ‘< love,’ but basically it’s all overwhelming. Sometimes, this leaves you unduly questioning who you are and what you stand for, so you’re required to sieve through and thread yourself back into order. It’s often chaotic but necessary all the same. I feel like to a certain degree the non-creative experiences this as well but based on conversations I’ve had and observations I’ve casually made, the disparity is miles apart. This is one of the foremost struggles of my creative journey as a singer/songwriter.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ogranya?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Twitter: https://x.com/Ogranya?t=9DdI3InIQiK2aS1-C1GtEQ&s=09