Meet songwriter Harrison Okiri aka Mr Songz!
If you are familiar with KCEE’s Limpopo hit track then you should know who Harrison is – he is Lagos-based
songwriter, who
charges N1.5million to write songs.
He currently has 120 unreleased songs.
“Before now we charged between N100, 000 and N2000, 000 for a song. Today I charge as much as 1million to write a song.
Truth is, Nigerian artistes have begun to appreciate songwriters. They
pay me my money and appreciate me. I have written a lot of songs but I
don’t talk about them because Nigerian artistes don’t like it when the
songwriters take credit for composing songs for them.” he told Punch newspaper in a recent interview.
He recently made a profit of N50m from the Mandela Caller
tunes on MTN.
Narrating how, Harrison excitedly said
“The proceeds from the caller-back tune
is actually worth more than N50m. Truth is, I was paid a lot of money;
you know – when they say money that can change someone’s life. That’s
the value of what I received.
I can’t reveal the exact amount because
we work as a team. So, all the money realized is shared among us. You
just want to forget all the years of suffering. It’s not a mere hype
because the money is there. The song is everywhere. You go to
South-Africa , the girls are crazy about it.”
According to him, the track which is a
Tribute to the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, released on
December 11, 2013, received a stunning one million downloads in a single
day. It is said to have become the most downloaded caller tune in
Nigeria and Africa.
To further reward him for the success of the callertune, MTN sponsored his recent trip to the recently-held Grammies in the US.
tune. We were chauffeur-driven in a limousine from the house to the
airport and it was the same when we landed in America. I experienced
firsthand some of the things I only see on TV. We flew first class and
it was my first time in America as well. Caller tunes and ring back
tunes are the future, I tell you. I never knew all this before now.”