Timi’s story could easily have been made for TV.
In high school and in the church choir, Timi Dakolo took a back seat – literally.
With a voice that his teachers saw as grating, they told him music was not his thing. If only they could see him now! It is the classic rag to riches story.

From that young boy in Nigeria’s troubled Niger Delta who had no shoes to wear, he has become the self-assured super star singing about a past that is nowhere close to what he has become.

He became an Idol in 2007 – again literally. It was the first time the Idol franchise was coming to Nigeria, and Timi was one of the finalists chosen to vie for the crown of the West African Idol. While he showed forth a personality, hunger and charm that would eventually see him through the show, it took a leap of faith for the judges to choose the young man with an unusual voice, but choose they did.

So, he gave up his Mass Communications programme at the University of Port Harcourt, when he auditioned for Idols in 2007, and decided to pursue this dream. “(The Idols project)  is an incredible platform…to launch the music careers of young artists. It exposed me to so much at an astronomical rate. I realized after winning Idols that I had so much to learn about the music business,” he says.

He was not one of those contestants who immediately stood out, but with each performance, and each connection with the fans, the girls ran wild, the guys nodded in approval, and the votes streamed in. You could also see Timi visibly grow in confidence, in stagecraft and as a person. It is difficult to say when he finally grew into his own, but by the time he bellowed his own composition at the Idols finale in Lagos, with a bag sling across his shoulders, West Africa and Nigeria, knew they had made the right choice.
His new song ‘Let it Shine’ hit the airwaves,  and there is no longer any doubt as to how bright this star will shine.  “I have been studying the business side of music and trying to understand how commerce and creativity come together,” he says in reference to his experience in the past few months, adding that he has “ been establishing contacts with my professional colleagues … getting to meet my fans, writing songs, and recording them. I have … also putting my first album together. It has been tedious and rewarding.”

With his eyes focused on the future, Timi has recorded more than a dozen songs from soul (his forte) to reggae, and with his management, Zuri Entertainment, he’s set to give fans the album they have been waiting for.

“(The Idols project)  is an incredible platform…to launch the music careers of young artists. It exposed me to so much at an astronomical rate. I realized after winning Idols that I had so much to learn about the music business,” — Dakolo