Nigerian music star Iyanya made a comeback in 2022 with his hit single ‘Like’ featuring Afrobeats heavyweights Davido and Kizz Daniel.
In an interview on Naija FM, Iyanya talked about his latest album ‘Once Upon A Cat’ on which he features a crop of emerging artists.
When asked about the motivation behind the album title and his decision to collaborate with emerging artists, Iyanya said that the album title was inspired by the comment of a social media troll.
Readers will recall that last year, social media was agog after Davido classified Burna Boy as a new cat (new crop of Afrobeats superstars) along with Rema, and Asake.
The statement polarised fans who attempted to classify who passes as a new cat and an old one. Amidst the conversation, one social media user asked where would Iyanya be classified and another user replied “that one is once upon a cat” in pidgin.
Iyanya revealed that he and his team had been brainstorming on the right name for the album and the comment of the troll was instantly selected as the right album title.
On the album, Iyanya featured a crop of emerging artists like Moonlight Afriqa, Tee Dollar, Qing Madi, M3lon, Pawwz, and Young Duu among others. The singer revealed that the decision to feature these talents was motivated by the desire to spotlight them.
Iyanya also shared that he intends to make a remix of his classic hit songs and make them into an album.
The full interview with Naija FM runs for 23 minutes and Iyanya also talked about his relationship with long-term associate Ubi Franklin and the social media controversy that followed his friendship with the female fan he met at Davido’s 2023 Timeless concert.
