Goldie Remembered: The Journey to Becoming Nigeria's Pop Diva

Born Susan Oluwabimpe Harvey on October 23rd, 1983 to Banker parents; her mother was a former bank Managing Director while her father also retired as a Director in a new generation bank.

A native of Ikole-Ekiti, Ekiti state, she was the first of four children and attended Green Springs Montessori Primary School and then St. John's College, Palm Grove. Her favourite subject was Christian Religious Knowledge(CRK) because according to her, she didn't have to study too hard to pass it!

Growing up, church was the only social life she had as her parents were active members of church. She participated in several church activities like drama, choir, Bible classes etc. In her words “I never had toys or friends because my father thought they would lead me astray”

As a child, she exhibited a strong flair for the arts and would often draw sketches of various things which her father didn't approve of as he felt outstanding success could never come from the arts.

At age 11, she lost her mother to Cancer. Having had a close relationship with her mother, she described the loss as traumatic and mourned her passing for many years.

Moving on...

She attended the University of Sunderland, United Kingdom where she studied Business Administration.

While in school, she formed an informal group with her friends and performed for other friends and family. They also did a couple of demos but never really made it out.

Taking A Stand...

On her return to Nigeria, she met Mani of Cool Fm while trying to make a radio jingle for another business of hers. He finally introduced her to OJB Jezreel when he saw how much passion and drive she had for music. OJB eventually produced her first single, Komole which was followed by other singles, Spin Me, Nothing Has Changed and Shift.

In 2010, she was signed to Kennis Music and released her first album, Gold a few months later. The album had popular songs like You Know It, Jawo Jawo and Don't Touch My Body.

Goldie went on to win several awards for her efforts in her debut album including the 2010 Soundcity Music Video Awards (SMVA) for You Know It, Best Use of Costume at the Nigerian Music Video Awards (NMVA) and Best Afro Pop Video at the 2011 Nigerian Music Video Awards for Don't Touch My Body.

An avid reader and movie buff, Goldie was also the ambassador of Project Alert, a not for profit organisation aimed at advocating Zero tolerance to all forms of violence against women and young girls. She was also a United Nations Ambassador for Peace.

In 2012, she participated in the Big Brother Africa Stargame and was evicted after 70 days in the house.

In the few months before she died, she had been working on a continental-wide musical project titled The African Invasion Album. Prior to her death, she had released three singles off the album including Skibobo featuring AY, Miliki featuring Navio and Give it to Me featuring J Martins.

Goldie and her best friend television personality, Denrele Edun had been working on a reality television show which was set to hit the airwaves soon.

Credit: goldieharvey.net