Ify Otuya

Nigerian-born Ify Otuya has been singing since the age of 7. Her singing experience dates back to her early school days where as a young girl, she actively partook in Drama and Singing at school.

By the time she was a teenager, she was writing songs. She performed frequently with a local church-based choir and it was here that her passion and undeniable talents in singing, performance and song-writing were unearthed.

Encouraged to pursue her passion, she continued in song-writing and soon began booking herself into studios. Here, Ify got the opportunity to work with different producers and sound engineers who recorded her songs and vocals against backing tracks to other songs. Often, Ify felt the backing track used was not a perfect fit for the song she had written. This left Ify feeling dissatisfied with the recording process. She soon wanted to get involved in the process of creating and producing the actual backing music for her songs.

Ify moved to London at 19 to study Psychology at the London Metropolitan University. At the same time, she enrolled on various part-time Vocal and Performance courses and joined a variety of Gospel choirs, performing frequently at local functions. As her confidence grew and her style developed, she invested in a home-studio production kit and began making her own beats and backing tracks. She also picked up two instruments – keyboard and acoustic guitar.

After studying Psychology, Ify enrolled full-time at the prestigious London Centre for Contemporary Music, to study Music performance and Production at professional level. She also got on the mainstream gig scene and toured the UK with various bands and professional singing groups, including Folk-Soul sensation, Whateverland, and Pop-Soul Choir, Souls of Prophecy Gospel Choir. She has worked with some international names including Toby Baker (B.B King, Brandy, Sinead O’connor) Marcia Escoffery (Elton John, Stevie Wonder), Pete Zeldman (Jaco Pastorius), and played with the Legendary Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Weseley (James Brown)

A Singer, Songwriter, Performer and Producer, Ify’s music is an eclectic vibe that reflects fusions of Afro beat, Funk, Soul, Gospel, Hip-hop, R&b and Pop.

She is currently completing work on her debut EP. For this project, she purposely relocated to Nigeria with the ambition of exploring ways to combine African poly-rhythms with the melodic and emotive inflections of R&B. Since relocating, she has immersed herself in the ‘home sound’ and set up her own backing band. Ify is also successfully promoting her single So Right.

So Right

Temperature Rising