By Ladapo Kolade
When the pictures of her photo shoot got to social media, it turned and rolled many eyes. The voluptuous general manager of Evergreen Music was adding another. She left no one in doubt that she would paint the town red. Her costume for the occasion was radiantly red.
Giving the world of glamour something to talk about is rarely her route. She has spent much of her life since graduating from the University of Ibadan slipping her feet into the giant shoes of her father, Elder Femi Esho, Nigeria’s foremost collector of Highlife Music.
A few years ago, she finally took over the business to enable her father to rest from a passion that he turned to business.
There were fears, says, Akeem Busari, that the woman could do what a man had done. Those fears faded as she took the bull by the horns.
According to Busari: “When Bimbo Esho took over the reins of Evergreen Musical Company, from her retired father, Chief Femi Esho, skepticism was rife. However, like the sayings on the streets, ‘Lion nor dey born goat’, Bimbo Esho, has come out good and of course, proving the skeptics and cynics wrong, that she is a true chip off the old block.
More than mere rhetorics and vain-glorious remarks, she has continued to affirm her commitment to the protection and promotion of Nigerian musical legacy, for which her highly regarded father had given his sweats and resources to keep alive.”
Bimbo started very early by studying the maestros such as the late Victor Olaiya and Sunny Ade. Her devotion to music and musicians made it easy for her to discuss their works and lifestyles.
As told by the writer, Wale Lawal, it was one such discussion on the Lijadu Sisters that led him to seek to know her.
Wale Lawal recalls the encounter: I still remember the first time I read something about her. It was some couple of years ago. She was talking about the Lijadu Sisters, I think. I was awed by her knowledge, not just of the Lijadu sisters, but of the music of that era. The passion with which she spoke about the artists of the 70s and the 80s fascinated me. You could tell she had profound respect for these artists and what they represented in
our music/entertainment trajectory. Though she must’ve been quite young herself when the musicians she spoke so glowingly about were making waves, it was obvious she knew them pretty well. Every one of them. And she loved them to bits. And from the passion and affection with which she spoke about them, you could tell she wanted every one of us to love them too. Without a doubt, she succeeded.
I was intrigued by this seemingly shy but elegant-looking woman. It is not every day that you come across a lady in Naija today who is barely in her mid-forties (like she was then) and talking gleefully about artists of the 70s and 80s.”
Sir Shina Peters affirms Lawal when he sent Bimbo a birthday message on the morning of January 25, this year.
He wrote: HBD to our dear sister a woman that all the people in the music industry respect and idol so much, our own Minister for entertainment in Nigeria May the LORD bless ur new age beyond your expectations.
