A beautiful voice and having the face to go with it, is a rare combination but petite sonorous singer Elizabeth Deegha or Leez as she is simply known has got both. Indeed, She did not disappoint the numerous admirers who have been longing to know the face behind the voice, in her appearance on the set of the OGD “All Stars”. In an exclusive interview with Mercy Michael she spoke about her career and her come back on TV in a couple of weeks, among other issues.

You are a singer, have you ever thought of acting

I'm a singer but occasionally I act. I haven't done much of that though, but I have done quite a few. I acted a movie three years ago and it has just been released this year, if I'm right. I starred along side Segun Arinze, Jim Iyke, Empress Njama, and John Njama. I played the role of a young girl who was so passionate about music but whose father didn't want her to go into it. The producer wanted something close to reality and that was why he called on me since I am a singer.

When did you start your singing career?

Professionally, I started doing back-ups in 2002 that was the first time I got paid for a job. Nelson Brown called me and said he wanted me to do back-up for a group. I hit the road immediately because I was being called to do a job and I knew I was getting paid for it. We didn't start on that day, we eventually started the next day and I was in the studio for four days without changing my clothes, I was only managing to keep my under wears clean. By the fifth day, I had to ask Nelson to allow me go home, so he spoke to the man who led the group I was doing back-ups for and the man gave me N150 for my transportation fare. He asked me to go home and come back to complete the job because I had just done like 50

thpercent of what I was supposed to do. I went home, changed and came back and spent two day more. Eventually we finished and to my amazement he gave me N500 making N650 I made from that job. But I didn't give up, I was not discouraged. However, after then I started getting jobs. Nelson was really of help, in getting most of these jobs. I really learnt a lot from him about the job as a back-up singer, also I was privileged to learn from people like Sammy Okposio,

What is your educational background?

Secondary school, I finished from Akintan College and then I went to Cross- River State University of Science and Technology, where I read Micro Biology. It was tough back then in school, because school was in Rivers and I was based in Lagos, at a time I had to relocate to Lagos. I had jobs, I was into broadcasting, I was presenting on TV. It started when I was in secondary, there was this NGO back then that was into campaigning against HIV\ AIDS, the awareness had not been this loud then, there were a few of them doing it. This particular one was called the Nigerian Youth Aids Programme, I'm not sure if it still exist till date. They had a task of going to schools and my school was one of them. They came and went straight to the principal, then I was in form four, they told her they wanted ten brilliant students, who could speak in public. The principal choose ten students each from form three, four, five and six. I n my class we were just two of us that were picked, a boy and myself. We were given a test and afterwards those of us that did well were interviewed. We went through training and we had a work shop that lasted for two weeks, after which we had a seminar. That was how we started. They equipped us and we became facilitators. Like you know December 1, is world's AIDS day, they mapped out some radio and TV stations where I visited because they felt I was very confident, I could speak well and beautiful too, I had a TV face and so they decided to use me for a media tour and every radio stations we went to someone there kept asking me, what I was doing with my voice, 'you have a great voice, very sweet radio voice' that is always the usual remarks. So I felt so good with myself. We got to FRCN and there I met this lady, Ema Ekpo she told me she had a concept but she needed a voice to do it. She told me to write a story of a girl who was supposed to be in school but is on the street hawking and I wrote and gave it to her. That was how the radio thing started but it didn't last for long. Then came the TV, my first appearance was on DBN. I felt excited; when people started calling in on the programme and wanted to talk to me, it was just one great moment for me.

Did your family support your career?

My mum yes! was feeling it, she was feeling the vibes all the way but my dad, was so concerned. He wanted me to be a medical doctor well I wouldn't say I don't know why, I like to see people happy, I hate when people are in pains. My dad saw this quality in me and felt I could serve humanity. When I asked him why he wanted me to be a medical doctor, he said he saw in me a doctor with a difference because some part of me wants to serve humanity. But that didn't happen, thing didn't go that way. So when he heard I was into entertainment, he was so scared but some how he is beginning to accept it. At least he's a lot better than what he used to be back then. From there I graduated from touring TV stations talking about HIV/AIDS and I got a job in NTA. I will always and forever be grateful to one woman who discovered me, who gave me that chance, who believed in me, her name is Comfort Okorokwo. She is always going to be in my heart, I owe her so much. Whatever success I have today as a broadcaster, whatever experience I've been able to acquire today, whatever anybody has seen and will still see in me in terms of production, in terms of broadcasting, whatever it is, I owe it to her.

By the way, where is comfort Okorokwo?

She was transferred NTA Oka, since two years now. So she has moved and to tell you how much she loves and cares for me, she said to me, I could find something for you in Oka, she just believe so much in me, when she was leaving she took some of the stuff I had done here in Lagos on Video 10, she took them out. So I get calls from Oka and people keep telling me, I saw you on TV and I didn't have to wonder how I just knew she was the one behind it. She has been so wonderful.

How did you get on the set of OGD All Stars?

Like I do back-ups, I've also done sound tracks for movies I don't even know their names. I have this client, who always brings these jobs to me. His name is Abbey Eso, he's a fantastic song writer, there is another guy Mike Mikelon. These guys actually gave me the opportunity to have done as much as I have done in sound tracks, apart from the one's I've done on my own. I started with them. Sometimes ago Abbey called me as always about a song we had to do, it was called behind the siege, it's a soap opera actually, by Tade Ogidan, I think it's running on Afica Magic, we wrote the song and that same night he told me that someone had been longing to meet me but I was just so engrossed in what I had to do, so I was less concerned. We did the song, he delivered it and he came back and said again that someone would love to see you, I asked who it was but he said he wouldn't tell me, but couldn't just be bothered. After a long time they shoot Dangerous Twins and they had to do a sound track again, Ajakubo. In the studio I did that song, for every job I get, no matter what it is, I do it like I would never have an opportunity to do another one, so Ajakubo was one of the songs. Tade Ogidan held the song again and said he wanted to see the face behind the voice but they kept teasing him that I didn't look as good as I sounded. One day Abbey took me by the hand and we got to OGD and I met the great Tade Ogidan. I was shaking to my knees, I had heard so much about him. I remember, then when I was in NTA, my boss tried to bring him over so we could interview him but it was so difficult. But here are I am, meeting him on a Platter of Gold, because I just worked into his office and I met him.

One day I visited his office, we were just talking and he asked me what it will look like to bring artistes together and show my face to the world. 'A lot of people have heard your voice but they don't even know the face behind it', he said. Few weeks later I just heard he wanted to do something like that, that was All Stars. I was in bed one night when my phone rang, it was past 9pm, and he said can you come to the studio now. Believe me if it wasn't him I probably wouldn't have gone because I was already in bed in my night wear. I got dressed and l left for the studio, when I got there he asked me to listen to a song, he said I should render the song in such a way that people will get to talk about it, and then he played Oluwa Jo Gbemisoke. It's a very popular song. Nelson Brown and the Engineer knew how I love to work. No matter what it is, if I'm rehearsing I like you to record because you might get what you are looking for while I'm rehearsing, but Uncle T said why not rehearse and they said even when she is rehearsing it could be it, so just let her roll. I didn't even have the head gear on, I was sitting on the chair and had the microphone in front of me and he just started recording and that song you heard in All Stars, the Gbemisoke which had the Stella Damasus, Kate Henshaw and the rest. That drop that I did was just a rehearsal. It was a one take. I was listening, they played the song and I just started. I felt I didn't do it well but he said that was what he was looking for and that was it and after then they started thinking of doing a compilation, do audio and then shoot the video.

You love make-up; it is obvious with the way you artistically do paint your face, what inspires you?

Growing up as a child, I see my mum wear lipstick, she does eye pencil, and all that and each time she does it, I just see that she has a different look and when she's not wearing it equally she is a different person and I liked it. I started thinking, but luckily for me my lips are pinkish, so I resolved that I didn't need a lipstick. All I needed was to draw eye pencil like my mum, but my mum usually shapes her eye brow, but I couldn't do it as a small girl, what I did then was use my tooth brush to give my eye brow a shape. Also I use to watch TV then, and there was this woman that actually inspired me into doing broadcasting, who made me long for that day I will be sitting like she was sitting and doing what she was doing. Her name is Carthy Edwards, she's change her name now. She use to read CBN news; she was a newscaster in CBN with Victor Oladoku but now they are on Turning Point. Back then she use to be so slim and beautiful, I just love what she was doing and then I look at her from her hair style to her make up, to what she wears and then the way she talks, the way she delivers her news it was so different. I was just always so interested. So, somehow that was inspiring me. I watched movies a bit then again I saw Tina Turner, her hairstyle and I just longed for all of that, I just couldn't wait to get out of school. So think I got that from my childhood as a matter of fact I started doing make-up even before my big sister.

What is one beauty item you wouldn't do without?

I'm not really addicted in as much as I do make-up, I'm not addicted. Sometime ago I used to be addicted to lip-gloss but not anymore because truly I don't just have a crack lips, so their riseally no use for the lip-gloss.

What are your plans of getting married?

I don't have a man right now! But don't think I'm searching right now. I'm just so engrossed with my job. Besides, you know what is with the kind of job that we do, men look at us and think we are not responsible but I'm not really bothered about what anybody thinks. I'm just keeping my head straight. What if I don't get married anyway? That wouldn't stop me from becoming who God wants me to be. It's true that, it is good for a man or a woman to get married but it is not a must. As much as possible, what is important is for us to try and live a fulfilled live and if being married is part of it, then God will certainly do it. Much more than everything in life, is that I want to be able to serve humanity, perhaps have an NGO someday.