Lara George is a Nigerian Female Songwriter, Gospel Artiste and Producer. She was born in June, 1978 to Mr. and Mrs. Oluwole Bajomo. She is the fourth of five children. At age 5, she became aware of her singing prowess. She loved music and had always wanted to sing. She attended Queen’s College, Yaba where she joined the choir and was given the lead role during presentations. She also learnt how to play the piano and recorder and learnt how to compose music. She went on to the University of Lagos to study Architecture. During her days in the university, it was not long before her singing prowess was noticeable and she joined her campus fellowship choir, singing together with other students.
At her time singing in the choir in 2007, at the University of Lagos, she met Ty Bello, Emem Ema, and Dapo Torimiro. The bond tightened, and further yielded the group KUSH, meaning ‘The Black Man,’ (Hebrew origin) and it’s acronym representing Kinetically Ushering Salvation into Hearts and Homes. The group became very popular on campus. Their upbeat sound was influenced by western tunes and fetched them a lot of fans and achievements all over Nigeria. The group’s popularity and acceptability grew and it was not surprising that they got signed to a multimillion-dollar deal by the record label, Inclusion Records/DKG Music, based in Los-Angeles Californi in 1999. However, the group did not last long. With just one album to their name, the group came to an abrupt end, disappointing lots of fans in the process. With the split, Lara had to sit back, reflect on the kind of music she would want to do, trained herself and after two years, re-launched her music career in 2007 with a solo debut album titled ‘Forever In My heart’ with Hit Single “Ijoba Orun’. The song gained massive recognition and earned Lara several nominations and awards such as ‘Voice of the Year, Nigeria Music Awards (2008), Best Vocal Female, Hip Hop World Awards (2008), Best Gospel Act, Nigeria Entertainment Awards (2008) as well as ‘Song of the Year’ and ‘Female Artiste of the Year’, Nigeria Gospel Music Awards 2009 .
Following the success of her first album, she worked harder, wrote more songs, drawing inspiration from God and her experiences. She said “I could wakeup in the middle of the night with a tune in my head, and not until I have expressed my thoughts with the tune will I return to sleep.” She released her sophomore 14-track album “Lara George” which was more of an urban style with elements of hip-hop, salsa and soul and expressed her versatility. She also collaborated with other artistes on the album. ‘Ko le baje’, one of the songs which was an hit received massive airplay. The album’s videos received a lot of nominations at the Nigeria Music Video Awards, including Best Gospel Video, Best Use of Special Effects, and Best Use of Animation. Lara George became an household name in the Gospel Music Industry.
In 2012, she released her third album “HIGHER-the Dansaki Album”. It had songs like “Kolebaje” and “Dansaki”, and was sung all over the place, earning her yet another set of nominations and invitations to minister to people. Lara George herself became nominated for Crystal Awards in the Song of the Year and Female Gospel Artiste of the Year categories. Later, in London, at the Africa Gospel Music Awards annual ceremony, she was awarded the Female Artiste of the Year 2012. With all these successes, she didn’t relent and still went to produce another album “Love Nwatintin” in 2014 and “A Slice of Heaven” in 2017. At an interview with ThisDay Live when asked if she knew she would go far. She replied, Well, with music, one can only hope,” she admits. “There is always a measure of uncertainty about whether or not one’s work will be well-received, even with the best of marketing plans in place. When I was going solo, it was particularly tough because, first, I was an independent artiste who really had no formal structure as ‘back-up.’ I literally had to take one day after the other, but I also feel like I certainly put in a lot of effort as well. Nevertheless, it’s been God’s grace all the way. You see, back then, there was no Instagram; Facebook and Twitter were brand new trends, and even YouTube had barely launched. Sometimes people take for granted the virality that social media affords an independent artiste today, but when I was starting out, and also because it took quite a bit of time before internet penetration in Nigeria really became widespread, I really did not have that structure on ground to exploit until much later.”
George has performed in various notable events including the GreenBelt Festival UK (as part of KUSH), one of Africa’s largest musical concerts with attendance of over 500,000 people, The Experience- alongside notable Gospel artistes such as Ron Kenoly, Bebe and Cece Winans, Micah Stampley, Don Moen and Mary Mary. Other performances include the Calabar Festival, MTN Music Festival, Festival of Life UK, Festival of Life Canada, amongst many others. She also appeared on BET International as one of the first artistes from Nigeria to be aired on that show. She was a member of the BET Voting Academy for two years in a row. She served as a judge on the music TV show Airtel TRACE MUSIC Star.
Other awards won by Lara include Best Gospel Artiste at the KORA Awards, (2016) Gospel Artiste of the Year Award given by BEN TV UK Awards, Trailblazer of the Year at the Africa Gospel Music Awards (2013), Best African Female Gospel Artiste given by the Nigeria Entertainment Awards (2013), Female Vocalist of the Year at the Headies Award (2013).
After releasing “Slice of Heaven” in 2017, Lara relocated with her family to Georgia, USA. She has written other songs and released singles.
Over the past two decades, Lara George has churned out evergreen songs. As a trained architect, she also has a professional career asides music in the Real Estate sector. At present, she is a licensed realtor in the state of Georgia. As part of her business portfolio which began in 2009, she was part of a company called SoForte Entertainment Distribution Ltd, (SED), which helped set up West Africa’s first and largest structured distribution outfit and helped nationwide distribution of music products.
She is married to Gbenga George, who is her manager. She said, “my husband took on the role of manager for me, shortly after I began my solo career. He is a legal practitioner and because of that background in Law, has been very instrumental in helping to structure my music. He ensures proper documentation, and also helps, every now and then, because he is very business-minded, to clearly articulate goals and objectives, whether within a for-profit, not-for-profit, or non-profit scenario. They are blessed with two kids, a daughter named Tiaraoluwa and a son named Adeoba Alexander. She once said that her overwhelming career almost made her not to have kids, but she later learned how to balance career and motherhood.
Lara George remains a household name for everybody in Nigeria and even a source of motivation for upcoming Gospel Artistes.
Sources:
ThisDayLive
Infohub
Legit
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