Singer Mary Maina Wanjiru aka Marya of the famous Chokoza song has opened up on her downfall in the music industry.
Chokoza was a collaboration between Marya and Avril and the song was released back in 2010 whereby it received a massive airplay.
Her journey in the music industry began with the help of Mustapha. According to her she just approached him and told him her intentions and that is how she was lucky.
“I don’t like talking about him but I will give him respect where it is due. When I met Mustapha, during their era they had a big name. It was long ago. I approached him and told him that I had been wanting to sing. I think he saw a talent, a star in me and took me to Ogopa deejay and that is how my career kickstarted,” Marya recounted.
Speaking to Eve Mungai, Marya said that the rain started beating her when her five year contract at Ogopa Deejay ended.
“Once the five-year contract ended that was it. That is where my challenge began, I never got signed anywhere. I used to think that I had friends in the industry but I learnt the hard way, you approach someone to do a video for you and you will pay after a show but it didn’t work out like that. For Ogopa, they did not want to renew the contract at that time, for every artist, we were many at that time,” Marya said.
After her exit from Ogopa, Marya said that she never managed to do any project on her own. The last song she ever did was Sishiki simu. She however says that she had no problem with the record label.
“I used to try and when I hit the wall I went down, I went to studios, I even tried to do audios with main switch but it reached a point you just hit the wall and I find myself back to the drawing board. [The problem was] finances and I didn’t have a manager. I think I was too dependent on the fact that Ogopa used to handle everything so doing all these things alone was a bit tough on me,” the mother of one said.
Her biggest mistake was however failing to put the money she earned during the days her name was big in good use.
“I held money when I was very young and I didn’t have anyone to tell me you need to save, you need to buy land so when you get money you just want to live the fast life. I was 22 years old,” Marya said.
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