She goes by the name Douye' (pronounced Doo-Yay) hailing form NIgeria but currently based in L.A. She’s currently released her sophomore album So much love which features multi-platinum and Grammy nominated musicians such as Frank Ocean, Chrisette Michele, and Jordin Sparks.  ZAlebs chat’s to the song-bird to find out more about the amount of love she has to give through this album.

Your album “So much love” feature many musical heavy weights who’ve worked on your album how did you manage to get all these artists in one album?

Well, perseverance I guess. After I completed writing songs for this project I began to reach out to the various producers that I felt were going to be right to produce the songs for the album. I was already friends and familiar with most of the producers and their work and so, I had hinted to them about what was ahead in terms of working with them. When it was time to move into actually working with them, it was an easy process. Plus, the producers that I had worked with are keen to producing songs with potentials and are done right even on a demo level. And so, I believe that, that attracted them to want to be part of the project. Having said all of that, doing my part in presenting them with quality songs with potentials made a lot of difference in working with such high calibre of producers/musicians overall, I am highly grateful for the experience.

 Is “So much love” going to be released in the rest of Africa?

I am hoping so, eventually, even though the African music distribution market is completely different from the Western world music distribution. Plus, the digital market scene has made it so easy for anyone to purchase music digitally which, in a way is a good thing; hopefully,  consumers would respect the artist work and not download for free but rather support the artist course and pay for art...

There’s been a lot of Nigerian artists collaborating with South African artist lately, do you know of any favourite S.A artists that you’d be interested in working with in the future?

My all time favorite artist from South Africa was the late Ms. Miriam Makeba. I really like her work because she was one of the first African female artist to blend Jazz with African sound to the awareness of the world; I thought that was innovative. Having said that, I am open to work with musicians with high spirit in their artistry and willing to add to the art of music in a positive light.

The U.S market is known to be quite competitive are you nervous about how the consumers in the States are going to receive your sophomore album?

You are right in the sense that the Western world music market is highly competitive, especially,  in America. However, I truly believe that it is achievable if the artists' work which in this case, is music, is quality based, has great potential, the artist brand is marketable, the artist is willing to work really hard towards accomplishing such goal(s), be innovative and fresh in one's artistic and branding ideas, having a strong and positive team to back the artist up, endlessly building fan base through social networks, appearances,  performances, showcase, radio both independent and major radio stations, having the right attitude that showcases one's musical style and brand, funding for one's artistry, music business is not a petty change business etc. The bottom line is,  dream big and be willing to give it your all, otherwise,  it is a waste of time. The ocean is too wide and deep to swim light, you just might drown.

Have you released any music videos for your other singles yet and who would you let direct your next video from the great music video directors that derive from L.A?

I do have a video for my single Til Morning Comes. However,  My team and I are in works of coming out with a video for the album title "So Much Love",  we are working hard towards that. I am still talking with few music video directors as to the direction of the video given the fact that, the song is a tribute song to the legendary Fela Kuti, out of respect for his style and his work, I would like to add concepts that reflect his style visually to the overall video concept.

Do you have a personal favourite track from the album?

Aha! This is indeed a tough one to respond to because, I appreciate everyone of my songs. But, if I really have to pick one, it has to be Man Enough Which is track  four on the album.  I believe that the song represents me very well artistically. It definitely has my signature sound vocally and production wise, the lyrics of the song is a form of my writing style, the song carries that sense of style and class that showcases what I call Douyeizm. 

Our current favourite Nigerian artists are the likes of Wiz kid and P-Square  who does it for you in terms of Nigerian artists?

I listen to some of these artists, I think that African musicians in general have come a long way and they continue to expand in showcasing African sound worldwide.

 Any other projects besides music that people can expect you in?

I enjoy writing poems and I would love to venture into acting. I am also a fashionista and so I may do something in fashion and establish my clothing brand in the future. I am also working on establishing a non-profit organization that would focus on promoting art working with underprivileged youths in Nigeria.....so much to attain...I guess the dream never ends.