Ogidiolu’s Folksy Highlife Tune: Pick My Call

Ogidiolu’s Folksy Highlife Tune: Pick My Call—Waking up to the song of Ogidiolu this morning I felt a bit of calmness all over. I guess this is how some of us who are lovers of music feel everytime we listen to songs that can captivate our mind and pierce through our heart.

From my experience as a music collector and researcher i know that for most love songs composed by a musician there is always a story behind it. Putting a call through to Ogidiolu to find out the story behind the scintillating song PICK MY CALL he simply said that was him telling a true life story on sexual temptation. He said the song PICK MY CALL is about sexual temptation he faced in Lagos when him and Oyesiji Oyeleye Mc Woli were working as Comedians at Ulaff TV, Lekki- Lagos.

His fiancee (now his wife) was learning fashion in Ile-Ife and she would hardly ‘Pick His Call’ until later in the night.

And there was this idle married woman next to his flat who always knocked his door whenever she heard the sound of his guitar. She would come in clothes that glorified her breast and the Lord’s blessing at her back, and start lamenting about how her husband rarely had her time.

He continues PICK MY CALL is a perfect love song for everyone who is in love”.

What I find interesting about this narrative is that just like many folk musicians,highlife and country musicians use songs to tell stories Ogiduolu perfected this skill with the song Pick My Call. He reminds me of Dolly Partons song Jolene that tells the story of a woman fearful that her husband is going to fall in love with a woman named Jolene.

Ogidiolu a native of Osun State whose father is a prolific songwriter and mother a church singer has shown that he is from a music family with his lyrical compositions . At different interviews which he has granted he said his mentors in the industry are his father, Tunji Oyelana, Jimi Solanke, Beautiful Nubia and Femi Ajayi AJ Sequential.

His songs according to him are inspired by the stories and experiences of ordinary people and that one of his greatest desires in life is to establish a thriving community of likeminded artists and audiences and see people being liberated through his musical compositions.

Ogidiolu who is a poet, Mc, scholar and researcher of culture and performance believes his best song is yet to come as his songs are inspired by diverse existential situations.

Though he is yet to give a definitive name for his genre of music but believes his music genre sits as an intersection of folk, alternative and Afrobeats.