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Ola Onabule -
Heart Of Lead
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He's Gone
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The Desperate Ones
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Let Love Alone
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Ola Onabule -
The Need to Be Loved
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Ola Onabulé (born Islington, London, England) is a British-Nigerian singer-songwriter.
Ola Onabulé was born in Islington, London. At the age of seven he returned to Lagos, Nigeria, where he spent the next ten years in school. At seventeen he returned to the UK to study at Millfield School. From there he attended law school, almost completing a three-year degree before deciding to enroll at Middlesex Polytechnic for an arts degree. While studying, he began to perform in London clubs and venues, writing and performing his own material.
Music career :
Onabule has had a career that spans almost two decades. He released much of his music on his own label, Rugged Ram Records, after recording for Elektra and Warner Bros. His first album, More Soul Than Sense, was released in 1995.
Performances 2009–2013 :
Ola Onabulé has performed internationally at some of the world's most prestigious jazz festivals and concert halls. Since 2009, he has appeared with the German big bands WDR Big Band and the SWR Big Band. He appeared with the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg in Potsdam for a concert at the Nikolaisaal featuring arrangements of his material by Peter Hinderthür.
In July 2009, he appeared on the main stage of the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2009 and Vancouver Jazz Festival.
In December 2009, he co-headlined a series of dates with South African jazz singer, Sibongile Khumalo entitled Soul Noel. The show travelled around the UK leading up to Christmas. The shows featured a band with choir led by arranger and conductor Kevin Robinson. The series of shows came to the attention of the BBC and he was invited to be a guest on the BBC TV program Soul Noel, which also featured Beverley Knight.
In June 2010, Onabulé returned to Canada and performed at Victoria Jazz Festival on the main stage, Vancouver Jazz Festival at the Commodore Ballroom and the Edmonton Jazz Festival on the main stage as well as an appearance at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.
In summer 2012, Onabulé performed his first concerts in the Baltic region. He was invited to perform at Estonia's Muhu Future Music Festival and at the Saulkrasti Jazz Festival in Latvia. On this first visit to Estonia, he was introduced to the ETV Choir and performed a concert with them in a church in Saaremaa.
In December 2012 he returned for further concerts with saxophonist Villu Veski and the ETV Girls' Choir. He also performed a concert in the Charles' Church, Tallinn, which was produced and filmed by ETV. The concert was broadcast in December 2012 on ETV and in New York on 22 December 2013. In 2014 he performed a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.
Onabulé returned to Latvia in 2013 for shows with the Mirage Jazz Orchestra. The performance at the Saulkrasti Jazz Festival was so well received that the promoters decided to bring him back in November 2013 for two shows at the Splendid Palace in Riga. In December 2013, he returned to perform for the third time with WDR Big Band Köln. The studio recording was filmed and broadcast via live streaming. The show featured the talents of German harmonica player Berthold Matschat. Two sold out shows followed with a radio broadcast of the last show on WDR Radio.
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