Niniola Turns Grief Into Music With ‘Raining (O Dun Mi)’ Tribute to Late Husband
By Emmanuel Daniji
For Niniola Apata, music has always been more than sound. But following the loss of her husband and manager, Michael Ndika, it has become a way to process grief, preserve memories and keep a cherished connection alive.
The Afro-house singer has returned to music with a deeply personal new single, “Raining (O Dun Mi),” a heartfelt tribute to Ndika, who died in May 2026.
Rather than presenting grief only through sadness, Niniola uses the song as a space for love, remembrance and healing.
It is a song about the person who is no longer there, but whose presence continues to live in memories.
Turning Loss Into Music
Following Ndika’s death, Niniola took a pause from music as she navigated the loss of someone who was not only her husband but also an important part of her professional journey.
Ndika served as her manager and long-time partner, making his absence both deeply personal and professional.
With “Raining (O Dun Mi),” Niniola has chosen not to step away from the musical world they helped build together.
Instead, she has returned to the studio and turned her emotions into a tribute.
The title combines English and Yoruba, with “O Dun Mi” conveying a deeply emotional expression of pain and feeling. But the song does not remain trapped in sorrow. Its emotional weight is transformed into something tender and reflective.
‘Some Feelings Are Too Deep for Words’
Explaining the meaning behind the release, Niniola described the song as an expression of emotions that words alone could not adequately capture.
“Some feelings are too deep for words. So I put them in a song.”
She explained that while some songs are created simply to entertain, others emerge from moments that fundamentally change a person’s life.
“‘Raining (O Dun Mi)’ is my deeply personal tribute to a man who was not only my life partner, but an important part of my journey and career,” she said.
For Niniola, the song is therefore not simply another release.
It is a musical record of a relationship, a career partnership and a life shared with someone whose influence extended beyond the private space of their relationship.
A Song for Those Who Have Lost Someone
Although deeply personal, Niniola does not present “Raining (O Dun Mi)” as a song meant only for herself.
She has opened the song to anyone who has experienced the pain of losing someone they love.
The singer said the track is also about the memories that remain, the empty spaces left behind and the love that continues even after death.
“Through music, I honour his memory,” she said.
That sentiment gives the song a wider emotional meaning.
For listeners who have experienced bereavement, the track can become a reminder that grief does not necessarily erase love. Sometimes, the memories of the person who is gone become the very thing that keeps their presence alive.
More Than a Comeback
“Raining (O Dun Mi)” arrives at a particularly vulnerable point in Niniola’s life.
It is not simply a return to the studio or another entry in her catalogue. It is an intimate attempt to make sense of a profound personal loss through the language she knows best.
Music has long provided artists with a way to document moments that ordinary conversations cannot fully contain.
For Niniola, this song appears to serve exactly that purpose.
She has taken heartbreak and transformed it into melody; taken memories and turned them into something listeners can carry with them.
And in doing so, she has created a tribute that does not simply ask listeners to mourn with her.
It invites them to remember someone they have loved, too.
“Raining (O Dun Mi)” is ultimately a song about loss—but also about the strange endurance of love, the memories that refuse to disappear and the healing that begins when grief finally finds a voice.
