An Interview with Music artist Bobby Felani Released new song “Vanite”
Biography:
Bobby Felani is an afrobeat songwriter/artist who just released his first single.
Terrence Bobby Herbst (Bobby Felani) was born on Feb 27, 1992, in Bamenda Northwest Cameroon. His mother is originally from the Buea Southwest region of Cameroon, while his father was of German descent.
He was raised by his parents along with his two elder sisters. He attended the University of Buea Cameroon where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History in 2014. But It was at his high school years that he developed a keen interest in music and at his university-level, he decided to pursue it as a career. Bobby lost his dad, on January 4, 2014. He regrets not having his father around long enough.
Bobby was a pioneer of the rap crew PIM boys together with Dready Christ, KoC, Mbengis System, Jamdong Boy P, and Boxy. They released a song titled “Ici Au Kamer” which was the start of Bobby’s professional career.
Q: Hi Bobby Felani! Please introduce yourself to the readers and how you first got into this field of work –and who were some of your influences growing up?
A: Hello my name is Bobby Felani, and thank you very much for this interview on your platform. After graduating from college, I decided to fully take on music as a career. Between 2011 and 2013 I took part in a lot of street performances, 2014 I contested in a Hip Hop talent show in my college, participated in a national music competition in 2015, from 2018 I worked as a backup artist for Cameroonian Rapper K.O-C, still in 2018 I engaged as a ghostwriter, selling some of my songs so I could meet up with my needs. Had a lot of disappointments in 2018, and 2019 I met Sessua Entertainment.
As concerns influences, while growing up, I honestly did not have a particular person who inspired me to start singing because I listened to a lot of different genres of music, from hip-hop and pop, to country to reggae to gospel to afro beats. So I can’t pick one particular person I will say was my sole inspiration.
Q: What has been your favourite project to work on so far?
A: So far I will say my first single Vanité has been awesome. I enjoyed every step of it.
Q: Your new single ‘VANITE’ is out and who inspired you. Can you talk us through that?
A: well, Vanité is my partly my life story, and partly an expression of a common phenomenon in African contemporary society, where brother kills brother because of greed and envy.
Q: If you had a chance to work alongside anybody who would that be?
A: That will definitely be Beyoncé. Because she is the greatest female vocalist of our time in my opinion. And I have always had the hope of working with the crème de la crème.
Q: How did you come up with the title?
A: Vanité is the French word for Vanity. This title is what I had planned for more than 6 months to write about. So I simply decided to find an umbrella title for the concept of the song and Vanité best suited that
Q: What was the recording process for “VANITE”?
A: It was really smooth. I got in the studio, prayed as I normally do before recording each song, then I stepped up to the mic. We took less than an hour recording. And DJ Kriss, the music producer as amazed how fast I recorded. When we were done, we listened to it all over and He said to me, it’s a hit bro. No arguments.
Q: What artists are inspiring you at the moment?
A: That will be Chris brown, Dadju, Shawn Mendez, Kizz Daniel, Anne Marie, Maître Gims and lots of Charlie Puth
Q: You have collaborated with some impressive artists over the last few years — who is on your dream list of people to work with?
A: Working on a project with Beyoncé will be a dream come true for me. I will also love to collaborate with other top artist both locally and internationally.
Q: What moment are you most proud of?
A: That moment when I realize how impactful the song Vanité can be on someone’s life.
Q: What are some of your favourite tracks from the EP and why?
A: I will not let the cat out of the bag just yet. But for now, am so much in love with Vanité.
Q: Can you share your social media link?
Website: https://sessuaentertainment.com/BobbyFelani
YouTube:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/official_felani/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bobbyfelanioff/
Tweeter: https://twitter.com/bobby_felani
