Justina is a walking story; one that would interest a movie maker – she has seen both sides of life: the troughs and the peaks. Today, however, she has blown away all the odds that stood on her way to self-realization. Her weapon has been music, out of which she is building a successful career as an R&B and Jazz artiste, wowing audiences across Europe and Africa. Born as Justina Ogunlolu in Lagos, Nigeria, Justina became a professional musician at a tender age. At 13, she started singing in choirs, writing songs and going to studios to back up artists. In the following years, Justina got increasingly well-known in the Lagos music scene as singer of several bands and through various studio productions of Nigerian artists.
With her fusion of Afrobeat with R&B and Jazz elements, Justina has become a well known musician in Nigeria whose songs and videos are played many times daily on TV and radio. Especially her song “Omo 2 Sexy” reached the top 3 of the Nigerian radio charts and is sang in the streets of Lagos by Nigerians of all ages. After her first album “Life goes on” Justina recently produced her second album titled “Oju mi” (my eyes) with two of Nigeria’s most sought after producers.
With her astonishingly powerful and variable voice, Justina combines different elements from Jazz, R&B, Soul, Hip Hop and Afrobeat to her very own style. In her songs which she composes largely herself she evokes her relentless love for life but also touches on pressing social issues such as poverty, corruption, struggling kids and the treatment of women in Africa.
End of 2005, Justina was invited for several shows in Germany, France, Italy and Austria and she spent the summer of 2006 performing in Switzerland with her band ‘The United Nations’. During her live-concerts, Justina amazed the European audiences with her versatile voice, her boundless energy and her creativity on stage and regularly turned both small clubs as well as crowds of several thousand people into hothouses. Justina’s 2005/2006 European tour was followed by several trips to East Africa in 2006 and 2007. In addition to performing in several of the best known clubs of Nairobi, Justina gave a memorable concert at the historic location where the famous movie “Out of Africa” was shot.
Between all these shows, Justina was on a brief visit to Nigeria in December 2006 to shoot a video for her first two singles when she heard about the music competition Nokia First Chance. She sacrificed plans she had lined up for her 2007 European Tour to give it a go. Out of several thousand applicants, she was selected as one of the 12 final contestants and six months later, Justina emerged as the first runner up from the show which earned her an international record deal.
As she had nearly completed the videos for her first two singles “Na me and you” and “Unity song” prior to Nokia First Chance, Justina decided to release these on her own shortly after the completion of the competition, irrespective of the recording deal she had been offered. Both songs were soon played by MTV and several radio and TV stations in Nigeria and between her travels abroad, Justina has a hectic schedule giving TV and radio interviews.
In January and February 2008, Justina once again awed the European audiences in a series of concerts in Switzerland. From June to October 2008, Justina embarked on a promotional tour for her new album through several European countries including Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. During this time, she played shows in a number of clubs in Hamburg, Cologne, Barcelona, Zurich and London and among other venues performed at London’s famous Notting Hill Carnival.
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