Gospel Singer, Tope Alabi Reveals Why Her Parents Wanted Her to Be a Nun
Nigerian gospel singer, Tope Alabi who recently trended in a spontaneous worship song, ‘Logan Ti Ode,’ which featured songwriter and celebrity photographer, TY Bello, has narrated how she lives a simple life despite being a celebrity and almost became a nun due to parental pressure.
According to Tope Alabi in the interview with Saturday Beats, living a fake life can lead to indebtedness and she makes conscious effort not to live that way. According to the gospel singer whose worship song ‘Logan Ti Ode’ was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people on several multimedia platforms, especially on the YouTube and Instagram pages, she composed 16 songs on that day, insisting that they were not pre-written.
“I still go to the market to buy groceries; I don’t like the idea of living the life of a celebrity. Sometimes when I want to go out, I take public transport. There was a day I boarded the BRT bus in Lagos to get to the popular Balogun market; I could hear the passengers whispering to one another.
“They were arguing if I was the one or not. They were saying Tope Alabi is not a poor person so there is no way she will be on a public bus. When I was about to alight from the bus, I revealed my identity to the driver, and this made many of the passengers to also get down from the bus to take pictures with me.
“Sometimes, it is necessary to have a taste of what it feels like to be an ordinary woman on the street. Many celebrities do not live their real life and are not free to do whatever they like; that is why I don’t restrict myself. When someone is not free to do what they feel like doing, like every other person on the street, it causes depression which can even lead to death.
“Some people try to sell fabric worth N20,000 to me at the rate of N100,000 because I am a celebrity; they don’t bother to find out if I have that kind of money or not. Living a fake life can lead to indebtedness as some celebrities always want to meet up to a certain standard,” she said.
Alabi explained how she enjoys going on long walks in her neighbourhood, describing it as “the kind of life I like.”
“Someone once told me to get escorts for security reasons, but I declined because I didn’t need them and still don’t need them. I am still discrete about my movement but I still live a normal life.
“I believe in buying only the things I can afford; I’m not materialistic. I always hear different stories of celebrities that lie about their material possessions; there is no need to live an extravagant life at all,” she added.
Interestingly when she was young, Alabi’s parents wanted her to become a nun. According to her, her parents felt that was a good way to work for God.
“When I was about seven years old, my parents told me God was going to use me but I didn’t believe them, they actually thought I was going to be a Sister because I was born into a Catholic family.
“I told them I didn’t want to be a Sister even though I loved Catholicism. They were worried that I didn’t want to go to the convent. My mother always insisted that I would work for God. Interestingly, I got my style of singing from my mother. Sometimes, when I sing, I listen to her voice in me,” she told Saturday Beats.
