WORDS GRACEY MAE
The most inspiring stories start with a protagonist who faces dire straits and comes out victorious. In this case, it’s not fiction; Justina Lee Brown, a child of a teenage -single-mother, fought all odds and is now living her dream. Forced to sell water in the streets as a child, she dreamt of stardom and fame but achieving it was almost impossible. Justina rose above abuse, homelessness and more to become a global sensation lending her voice to causes that matter.
Following the release of her latest single ‘Billikili’, which spotlights issues facing women in Africa, F Word caught up with the singer and songwriter to hear more of her story.
Trigger warning: Sexual abuse.
Gracey Mae: Hi JLB, welcome to F Word. How are you today?
Justina Lee Brown: I'm great. Thank you, and you?
GM: So much better for speaking to you. Congrats on your brand new single, ‘Billiki’. Talk to me about the inspiration behind this track.
JLB: I wrote it at the time of CoronaVirus. I came back from a tour in America in late February. By early March, the pandemic struck so we couldn't continue the Europe tour. I was in my room, scrolling through social media, where I came across insane stories about two girls who were raped! One was raped by a police officer who is meant to protect. The other girl was raped by someone in the neighbourhood. The stories pissed me off because at seven, I went through a similar occurrence that I didn't speak about until I was twenty five. Growing up and seeing that such things are still happening in our community broke my heart. Prior to that moment, I was afraid to write about things like that, because I don't want to make people too sad with my music but I said, “ No, it's time”. Time to just let that pain that I buried for many years come out and also speak for other people still facing this situation.
GM: It's such a deep story. Do you use music as a form of therapy, and did you fear backlash?
JLB: Definitely! With a song like this, you just have to expect whatever will come back because some people might be very grateful that you're expressing yourself and not holding back. Most of us in this world need a lot of healing but we are very ashamed and afraid to speak our truth. Someone else can get healed from your own story; they can get power to speak out, to stop whatever they're going through. Recently, I went back to all the music I did in the past. I realised that I've been writing conscious music without being aware. It's been my style of writing music, to make sure that I tell a story that is part of me - although, I try not to tell too much of the story. Then mix it up with music so it can entertain people.
GM: I love that you're using your music to heal. What can you tell us about your upbringing?
JLB: My upbringing was crazy! Quite recently I reconnected with my little cousin and we went back in time. He went, “Justina, you crazy girl! How did we do it, to get out of those things we went through?” I replied, “God”. He is who we can look back to. We spoke for four hours, reflecting on the past. My grandmother came to the city to survive, and eventually sent for both her daughters. She remarried and had other girls as well. They were five in number and my mum was the first. Do you know the heartbreak it gave my grandmother to see that just two years after she (my mother) left the village, her teenage daughter got pregnant in the kind of society that we grew up in Nigeria? My mum, an Igbo girl, fell in love as a teenager and birthed me for a Yoruba boy but due to tribalism, shame and heartbreak, my grandmother kicked her out. She ended up on the street with no family, no money and no one to help her. This is young Justina coming to the world, growing up with her mother on the street for almost ten years. My mother is my superhero. She went through a lot and never gave up on me, even when she could have aborted me. It was tough but God saved me and my mother. On days with no food, she believed that things would get better. That's why she gave me the name ‘Oyimechi’ which means “Who knows tomorrow”.
GM: I hear that one of your first jobs was selling iced water with your Mum. Did you feel that doing it set you up for success?
JLB: The funny story is, at that time, if you saw us, you'd never believed that we were poor and we were sleeping on the street because my mum was clean. My mother had just two wrappers and shirts. I had one dress, a skirt and a shirt which you'd never see dirty. Every night, she would wash the dress then wrap me up with tarpaulin and papers so I don't get cold. She would also cover me up with one of her wrappers, and sleep wearing old underwear. The next day, she would wash the wrapper and tie the other one. That's how we stayed clean. When we asked for help, people would refuse because they thought we were doing well so she had no choice but to do this iced water business. I started singing as young as six years old out of boredom and before you know it, people started dropping tips because they thought I was entertaining for money. My mother was skeptical about how I got the money until one day she experienced it. She came back to a big crowd surrounding her daughter. I was lost in the vibe, dancing, singing and screaming my voice out. My mama thought something bad was happening so she jumped in and pushed everybody away. She saw me entertaining. I got so scared because I thought she was gonna smack me. I showed her the money and said, “Mummy, look what they gave me”, she burst into tears. That's how I started with music. The streets became dangerous for me as a girl, so we went to the church to seek shelter. I joined the choir and started performing in the church who promised to sponsor my school fees. At the age of fourteen, I realised that they were not ready to send me to school so I fled to the club in order to make money for my family.
GM: You’ve come a long way. What would you say has been a highlight of your career?
JLB: It was when I opened the stage for Zucchero. He is a world star and one of the legends of Italy. I opened the stage for him at the 2022 Sierre Blues concert in Switzerland. I met him backstage, and he hugged me. Initially, when I had just arrived in Europe, I had no clue who he was but when I discovered him, I was awed. He's played in the biggest stadiums that you could ever imagine in the world and sold millions of records. Additionally, performing at the boarder between Russia and Latvia, in front of 100,000 people. Another highlight was last year at the Blues ‘n’ Jazz festival. There were over 60,000 people watching me and listening to my music. After that performance, I cried backstage. All I said was, “God, thank you”. My mother went to all her friends saying I'm famous in Europe because I called her on the phone and said, “Mama, Look at your girl here”. That was when I knew that I'd achieved something. Glory be to God that the fight, struggle, pain, everything we went through, was worth it.
GM: Let's talk about ‘Omo 2 Sexy’ - your big breakout track. Take us on the journey from singing in the church to this point.
JLB: Earlier, I told you that I left the choir because neither my mother nor I were getting help from there. A friend of the choirmaster was the one that took me to the club, and I had to work for several bands just to have my face or my name known. I fabricated my age in order for me to be allowed in the clubs because I was pretty young. I also took a lot of risks because sometimes these clubs finished their concerts as late as 11pm. Some were on [Lagos] Island but I was a girl from [Lagos] Mainland and I had to go home as late as 12-1am with nobody to protect me. On several occasions, I almost got kidnapped and abused by street boys. Over time, I saved a lot of money and released my first two official singles which were “Na Me And You” and “Unity Sound”. Although it circulated in the whole of Lagos, it wasn’t a hit. “Omo 2 Sexy” came after I got involved in a competition called ‘The Nokia First Chance’, a reality TV show. I was the first runner up and I decided that I needed to put something out. So, “Omo 2 Sexy” was released in 2005 but took a while before it circulated. At that time there was no internet to promote music so I had to do it the straight way, that is to travel through each state.
GM: If you were to give twenty-year-old Tina some advice, what would it be?
JLB: I would encourage her to believe in herself more. I would say that the young Justina should have lived more, believed that she deserves to be happy and have fun. I was scared that my younger siblings would go through the same struggles I did. I didn't want them to face it, so I lived with that fear as I struggled so hard to protect them all. So if I could advise a young Justina, I will tell her to live more for herself.
GM: To the young women that are going through any of the struggles that you've mentioned, whether it’s homelessness or abuse, what words of encouragement would you share?
JLB: It's never their fault. I took the blame on myself, I felt like I could have done something to prevent it, but I realised there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. I didn't initiate the abuse. It was a circumstance. I realised also that whatever we face in life is a lesson and a guide for us to overcome what is ahead of us. To be strong and prepared; God never gives us what is too heavy for us to carry. Have faith and believe that you will get out of it and nothing is permanent. Once you have that at the back of your mind, you can excel, you can soar, you can fly over high mountains. This is something nobody ever told me. I had to discover it by myself. Keep your head up and believe in you and know that it's just a matter of time, it will heal and make things right.
GM: Thank you for your transparency. You’re a true inspiration. As we wrap up, my final question to you is, what is your favourite "F" word?
JLB: My favourite "F" word is ‘fuck’.
