Eminent Woman of The Week: TARRAH

Born Chimatara Ihunanyachi Ajaonu, Tarrah as she is musically known, hails from Ebonyi state by birth, and Delta state Nigeria, by marriage.  This soulful singer who is set to release a new single “SOCIETY” come 20th of April, 2015 under Music Republic Records, in this chat with us, reveals what music is to her and why she sings the way she does.

“I started singing at the age of 4 in the church.  I remember the first time I sang, I had to be carried off the stage because I burst into tears when I saw different pairs of eyes staring at me”.  The now very confident and sonorous Tarrah says about her early days. She added that music started for her professionally in 2005 while she was still in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.  In that year, she recorded her first set of songs including “Amaragi” which became a hit song in the school and “Song of the Week” on the music countdown Rythm Fm, Lagos in that same year.

Music she says is a powerful tool, it is a part of life especially in the world filled with news of war, hatred and terror, and she brings the message of love, peace and unity through the songs she writes and sings.  She holds that Jesus is at the core of her music and the world is her audience.

Tarrah who has been married for six years and blessed with a lovely daughter, decided to take a break from her musical career to pay attention to her family, a decision she says she is glad to have made and which among other things, inspired her new song “SOCIETY“.   Thinking about happenings in the society she said,  “If only we can get it right at the home front, then there will be positive changes in our society.  I believe family is at the core of the society and people should put into perspective things that matter.  Chasing after money, having extremely busy schedules without spending time with people who really matter is the fastest way of creating  “stranger spouses”! She emphasized.

On writing the song, she says, “It took me 2 days to write.  I remember I was in the middle of writing, when I remembered I hadn’t told my husband a dream I had the night before.  So I called him up and his words were “babe please let’s talk about this when I get home, I’m very busy at work” .  The song was completed 10 minutes after that conversation. lol .  When he got home and I sang the song to him as I usually do, he started out by saying ” Babe, I know you wrote this song for me but let me explain” hahaha.  He’s very careful what he does before I go and “use him to write songs.  I just love my crush for life”, she added.

After “SOCIETY“, you should expect an EP (Extended Play) alongside a music video, then the full album.  The dates will be communicated to everyone.  Firsthand information will be on this blog,  my website: www.tarrahmusic.com,  www.musicrepublicrecords.com which is my record label’s site, on instagram and twitter @tarrahnigeria,  then my Facebook page Tarrah.

Tarrah who infuses her local Igbo language in her songs believes that people should be proud of wherever they come from and represent their families, societies, countries and continents positively as the case may be.

So you have all the details, what can we say but to ask you to watch out for the release of #SOCIETY and more of the Afro soulful songs by the lovely Tarrah who says she is all set for impacting the world.

Cheers to Women Making The Difference!

WEIRD MEETING WITH “MR RIGHT”

                    Its the beginning of a holiday, though a short one, but worth the while. While my advice to myself and us all is not to loose the essence of the celebration, I feel like sharing this piece by my dear friend. Just a fun way of looking at a serious situation. Many of our single ladies are looking out for the “RIGHT GUY”. Quite a lot of imaginations as to how he would appear and what fantasy proposal he will make. 

While you wait dear sister, have fun reading an imaginative piece by CHIZI NONYE AJOKU. You might just get a hint on how some spectacular guys of today would propose. Have fun reading and as you wait, know for sure that God  is sending you  “THE ONE”.  

I watch you as you come out of your car, lock your doors and then stroll leisurely into the restaurant. You pause to assist a young lady with the door as she gives you a pleasant smile and walks in, you follow closely behind her as you shut the door behind you. The intensity in your eyes, the slight smile that tug at your lips, your dark hair, ebony skin and your body that was in perfect shape paint the picture of a guy I once saw in my dreams. I continue watching you from my corner in the restaurant over a plate of fried rice and peppered chicken, sipping my bottle of soft drink; you walk across the room and take a table directly across from me.

As you take a seat, your eyes quickly take in the entire room and finally settle on me. My heart skips a beat as I take my eyes completely off you for a few minutes. I think it’s safe again and try to steal a glance at you, but I’m caught dead in the act because you are still staring at me. I return to my meal and attack it with such determination that anyone will be forced to think I was trying to choke myself.

Your order soon arrives and you whisper something to the waiter and he nods and takes the tray away, I am still wondering what you up to when you stand up and start walking in my direction, my initial instinct was to bolt, but no, my Mama raised me right and I am yet to meet the guy who will intimidate me to that point. You must know though that I love guys and probably get on with them more than I get on with my female folk but a stranger who makes my heart beat helplessly or gives the ‘butterflies in your stomach’ a whole different meaning gives me cause for worry.

 I take in a long, deep breath as I prepare for the inevitable. Now, it is usual for a guy to walk up to a lady sitting alone and say stuff like ‘is this seat taken?’ or ‘A beautiful lady like you should not be seen alone’ and other more irritating regular stuff. Not this guy, he was definitely not the regular breed. When he gets to my table, he stares at me for a few seconds, it gets very awkward and I ask ‘can I help you?’ I get a dirty slap in return and he wears a straight face as he says ‘WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?’

My hand is still on my face still trying to recover from the shock. I reply ‘excuse me?’ He says ‘you know exactly what I mean’ as he makes himself comfortable on the chair directly opposite me.

I still continue wearing a confused look on my face as I start to beat myself up for day-dreaming about a total psycho. I didn’t get the memo that patients had been released from the psychiatric ward this afternoon because this one personified everything psycho.

I promised I was going to walk out quietly to avoid creating a scene with this particular patient. I stand up to leave when he starts apologizing, I ignore him and then he grabs my hand for emphasis, I scream at him to get his filthy hands off me and in my heart I actually start abusing myself, insisting that I brought it on me.

It takes the stranger about five minutes to convince me that he was not a raving lunatic and I wasn’t in grave danger if I sat down back. What also calmed my nerve was when two different families with kids stopped to say hi to this guy, they couldn’t all be mad was how I kept consoling myself.

The waiter brings his food back as we have one of the best times in my life. We chatted late into the evening and it seemed like we had known each other forever.

To explain the slap, seeing as you all are waiting for an explanation. He had a bet with his friend when he was fed up of meeting new women everyday and not finding the person that seemed to complete him, that when he comes in contact with the lady, he was going to give her a dirty slap and ask her where she has been. His friends laughed very hard and said he didn’t have the guts and that if he did, he was going to get a hundred thousand naira (100K) in return. I told him he had taken a major risk because he could easily have turned a potential girlfriend into an enemy in the space of five seconds.

That was the start of a very fruitful and exciting relationship. It’s the story I always have to tell when I am asked ‘’how did you guys meet?’’ Not everybody’s meeting with ‘the one’ is as dramatic as mine and some are a lot more dramatic, stuff that movies are made of. If you think your story trumps mine, send your story in and you stand to win a prize (yeah right! Just kidding)

AND MR RIGHT CAME ALONG…

So now you have one of the weirdest “MR RIGHT MEETING STORIES”, to you that is still waiting for that special one, keep your fingers crossed! He’s probably just around the corner. But just for the records, I returned the slap the day he proposed saying ‘WHATEVER TOOK YOU SO LONG!?’ *winks*

TODAY’S LIFE NUGGETS

In Celebrating World Humanitarian Day…

• 
• We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

 

• There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives–the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.

                                                                  ...Mother Theresa.

 

EUCHARIA REMMY…A DREAM GONE THROUGH!!!

I AM FREE, FREE TO LIFT MY HANDS, FREE TO SAY AMEN;

FREE TO KNOW THAT SOMEDAY I WILL SMILE AGAIN;

I’M FREE, FREE TO LAUGH NOT CRY, FREE TO LIVE NOT DIE…

This song, this beautiful song, full of hope yet brings back a sad memory. Early tuesday, as is my usual morning ritual, I was flowing along with the songs playing on my PC when this song came on. As I sang, the words were filled with assurances. Then I remembered the day the song really registered in my heart. Even though I had heard it originally, but this day, it made more sense to me.  Eucharia and Zimuzo; two pretty friends of mine, ministered it some years back, in the school church, one beautiful Sunday afternoon.

That day, even though I knew Eucharia had abilities, I was impressed at her rendition of the song, not because she had the best voice, but her expressions brought the song home to me. Before then, I wouldn’t have thought she would have the guts to come sing before a crowd, however, in real expression of being “FREE” she sang “heartfully”, ignoring the criticisms; (I believe she was lost in the ambience of a KNOWING that she’s FREE).

I can’t remember when exactly I met her, maybe because she rarely appeared to be the one with a noisy announcement of her arrival. But getting to know her reveals a lady bubbling with the love of God, Humanity and man. Hospitality was natural to her, never made an effort to love and care for people; it just flowed like her blood.

Anytime we were on holidays, she would call to take me around Lagos even when I had never asked or even to buy her a drink; (It used to make me wonder at that kind of love). At a point, she went out of her way to organize a get-together for our school fellowship.  She just sort avenues to reach out to people and more inspiring is that she never asked for anything in return.

Hers was a very humble background but she never allowed it deter her from aiming very high. Her dreams and aspirations were quite big, but beautifully so, it was for the Love of God and fellow men. Great dreams they were. I remember one so vividly; She was going to be the first to establish a Christian family club and resort where Christian families and groups would come in and hang out in a conducive environment.

To many, it appeared an exaggeration…larger than she could ever achieve, but that was Eucharia; LARGE HEART, enclosed by a clay form, nicely carved in a slender display of a beautiful, but meek appearance. Whenever she had the opportunity, Yukay, as I fondly called her, would thrill you with a description of her dreams. She created a lively imagination of the reality of this “CHRISTIAN RESORT AND TRAVEL CLUB” (I’m not sure what the name would have been). Listening to her talk about it, I could connect to the awe of it.

To say that it also inspired me to keep at my aspirations would be making an obvious statement. The look in her eyes and the way she gazed with her heart-tickling smile. I believed in that dream without seeing it and I know so many like me, did too.

And then I was done with school. I saw Yukay a few times after that, but I constantly had something to remind me of the Love-Lady; A shirt she gave me. We talked a few other times online and then I went on for my NYSC in 2011.

THEN SOMETIME IN NOVEMBER…Just a week after we chatted on Whatsapp, Yukay asking me how I am and how I am pushing, we talking about her NYSC and how it’s going…I just heard a NEWS THAT HELD ME FIXED IN ONE PLACE FOR SOMETIME…Yukay was shot dead by the bloody sect; Boko Haram!!!…She was sharing Flyers;inviting people to church. I still had the history of our chat and I had to check back…She was full of life, love and care, her normal way!!!

Thoughts, thoughts and thoughts flew through my mind; “I know God can’t let that happen, she’s too loaded to leave now, Oh no!!!…thoughts… but Alas, it was True!!! Yukay was gone!!!!! For real….truly. The many things she did not accomplish bothered me for a while, because I was privileged to be let into some.  I thought again, even with her short stay, Remmy Eucharia affected Lives. She touched Lives in so many ways, more than many that have lived longer. I wondered why it happened, but God is all-knowing.

Her marks are in my life and sure in many others in no mean way. I just clicked a check on her facebook profile and discovered her page is still alive with comments and gratitudes to the Love Let Loose. She did not withhold at all, Yukay Lived Loved. She had no husband, yet many men are favored to have known her. She birthed no babies, yet many are grateful to have learnt from her.

It then leaves me to really ask myself:How have I lived so far; How am I living now; What impacts am I making? What experiences do people have from the life I live.  The many of us should conduct this very necessary check..

If you were gone for a minute…who would miss you and why would they…SELAH

I just felt to do this for my friend, even though she lived short…Her marks are so great to be forgotten… You are definitely FREE from Death and Troubles…Live On Yukay…Will definitely meet you someday!!!.