Joromi’ by the pop artiste, Jaywon, is
not only enjoying massive airplay but it is also on the playlist of a
lot of Nigerians home and abroad. However, the name Joromi became
popular through the hit song of Sir Victor Uwaifo in 1969.
Recently, the veteran musician came out to accuse two singers, Jaywon and Simi, of pirating his song without his permission.
In an exclusive chat with Jaywon, he
admitted that he got the inspiration for his song through Sir Victor
Uwaifo’s hit song, ‘Joromi,’ adding that he made efforts to contact the
veteran singer officially but his attempt did not yield a result.
He said, “There is no way I can talk
about my hit song, Joromi, without talking about Sir Victor Uwaifo, who
we all grew up listening to his music. The whole idea of the song is
different from Sir Victor Uwaifo’s but the title reminds anyone of his
song. I cannot take away the fact that his song inspired mine. I felt
that I should tap into the current beat making rounds in Africa with the
song. My song is a love song and I also saw it as an opportunity to
promote my artiste, Twist da Fireman, who was also on the song. He added
a different sound to the song. I am happy everyone loves the song. I
keep working because it is difficult to know the song people would love,
so I keep working till I get it right.
“The truth is that I actually wanted to
write an official letter to Sir Victor Uwaifo about the issue but when I
asked around, I was told that he was not in Lagos. It was just the
title and they are not even pronounced the same way. I know what it
means to tap into someone’s intellectual property. I would not be that
stupid to take someone’s intellectual property without proper
authorisation from the owner of the song. A lot of people do it but I
cannot do such. The instrument I used in my song sounds nothing like
what Sir Victor Uwaifo used in his.”
The singer seized the opportunity to
apologise to Sir Victor Uwaifo, whom he said he regarded as a father
asking him to understand. He mentioned that there were some artistes who
had remixed his work without his permission but he chose to look the
other way.
“The truth is that I am sorry if he
feels that I used his song without his permission. He is our father and I
cannot disrespect him. I would be so silly to think of disrespecting
someone like Sir Victor Uwaifo, who has been inspiring us since we were
kids. In all the interviews that I had granted, I had given him credit
for the song but we are talking about the title of the song and not its
content. Small Doctor just released a song titled ‘This Year’, am I
going to fight him because of the title of the song? Dammy Krane
released a song titled ‘Amin’ which is a different version of my song,
‘This Year; Tim Godfrey released a song titled, ‘This Year’, which is
like a proper remix of my song. Dammy Krane and Tim Godfrey took about
60 per cent of my song to make theirs. In my own case, we are talking
about the title of the song alone, in fact, the titles do not sound the
same when you pronounce them. But like I said, I still have to give
props to people that deserve it and there is no way I would talk about
Joromi without remembering Sir Victor Uwaifo. The reason I did not give
due credit to him is that the songs are not the same, they just have
similar titles,” he said.
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