Kefee was born Irekefe Obareki some 30 years ago to devout Christian parents, Deacon and Mrs. Andrew Obareki in Sapele,
Delta State, she began singing at the tender age of eight. While her father was
a Deacon in a church, her mother was a frontline woman leader. At her tender
age, they discovered that Kefee had a gift for singing. However, when she tried
to join the choir, she was denied. Reason, she was too small to be in the
choir.
However, Mr Alec Godwin, who would marry her later was choir master. He
then got her into the choir through his influence and when she turned 15 he
drafted her into the senior choir and thus a romance which would blossom into
marriage and eventually heart break for the pair was born. Kefee eventually
became the choir director at age 18!
Kefee fell in love with Alec and in the late 1990s, they relocated to Lagos.
In 2000, Kefee, a graduate of Public Administration from the University of
Benin, released a debut album entitled “Trip” with a friend. However, success
came her way in December 2003 when she signed on with Alec Music, a record
label owned by her heartthrob and released her first solo album.
Under Alec’s tutelage, Kefee recorded her first hit song, Branama, which
was a runaway success. Overnight the couple became the poster couple of the
industry as Branama took Kefee to new heights and she won several awards.
Meanwhile, the romance continued to flourish and the logical thing to do was
to get married which they did in 2005. In 2006, Kefee released another album,
Branama 2.
However, by 2008 the couple was at the end of the road. Still childless
and always at loggerheads, cracks began to appear on the wall amid rumours of
infidelity and domestic violence. Soon, the marriage broke up in a messy
divorce which saw the pair washing their dirty linen in public in 2008, three
years after they tied the knot.
The climax was when the divorce proceedings began in court and the pair
revealed a can of worms. On his part, Alec packed his bags and baggage and
relocated to Port Harcourt and closed his record label, Alec Music, which at
the time boasted the likes of TWO, Gordons, Dude Tetsola, Segun Obe, Rymnzo and
Kefee.
Commenting on the lessons she learnt from her broken marriage Kefee had
said: “It only opened my eyes more to what life is all about; if you don’t go
through challenges you never become a stronger person. That was a chapter in my
life that was meant to make me stronger as a person. People go through
challenges and that was my story and when we couldn’t carry on any longer, we
had to part ways.”
Nevertheless, life must continue, Kefee determined to make a career for
herself, rebounded from the crisis after she recorded a new single with Timaya
entitled “Kokoroko” and landed herself a UN ambassadorship deal. “Kokoroko” got
her the biggest award for her career for Best Collaboration at The Headies in
2010. She also began work on her business, Branama Kitchen, and there was also
talk of a cloth line. She embarked on various tours both within and outside the
country during this period.
Kefee had been secretly dating Teddy Don Momoh after the breakup of her
marriage and in March 2012, gospel music lovers were shocked when word broke
that she had secretly married her long-time friend, Teddy Don Momoh. Pictures
of the traditional marriage went viral. Shortly after, the singer launched her
Branama kitchen. In an interview she had granted at the time, Kefee declared
that indeed the storm was over.
The couple tied the knot on Saturday, March 3, 2012 in Sapele, Delta
State. The wedding ceremony and news about their marriage were, however, kept
on a low with lots of surprises from Teddy’s associates.
Commenting on why she chose to settle down with Don Momoh, Kefee had
said: “My husband is a very nice guy and I am actually writing a book about my
first marriage. The bottom line is that I am happy and if you ask me, this is
the first time I am getting married”.
In a career that spanned well over a decade, Kefee successfully wrote
her name in the annals of Nigerian music. Kefee’s Branama album sold nine
thousand audio cassettes in just three weeks of the album’s release and over
two million copies of CDs/VCDs in a month. She became the hottest Nigerian
female artiste and won a number of awards increasing her fan base all over
Africa and also on the international scene. She was invited to perform in
London and other parts of Europe and America.
Kefee’s second album entitled “Branama 2” was just as terrific as her
first and consolidated her hold on the gospel genre. The release of “A Piece
of Me” in January 2009, catapulted her career to new heights due to its diversity.
She released her last album in 2012 entitled “Chorus Leader”.
According to reports, some weeks ago, the singer, who was rumoured to be
six months pregnant, had collapsed aboard a 14-hour flight to Chicago in USA.
Consequently, the aircraft had to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles
where Kefee received urgent medical attention. It was also rumoured that the
singer had been diagnosed with pre-eclampsia – pregnancy induced high blood
pressure and was on life support.
Though Kefee had been in a coma for close to three weeks, it was
with shock that Nigerians received news on Friday 13th June, 2014
that the gospel music star and Branama Queen, had passed on to the great beyond
abruptly terminating a career spanning over a decade. Even in death, Kefee’s
light continues to shine as she was a frontline gospel music star. With four
albums to her credit and a number of hits, she would go down as one of
Nigeria’s most successful contemporary gospel musicians. May her soul rest in
peace. Amen.
Tony Erhariefe and Nkechi Chima.
Edited by Emeka E. Okeke.
