Abdulsalam Suliyat Modasola, the Nigerian singer and songwriter, who is popularly known as Liya, has revealed why she left Davido Music Worldwide (DMW).
Liya, who was the first female artist to sign with DMW in October 2020, said she exited the record label because she wanted more for herself.
The singer had announced her exit from the label in 2023 during an Instagram question-and-answer session.
Replying to a fan who asked if she was still with DMW, she wrote, “Nopee, but #30bg for lifee.
Speaking on a recent episode of Wahala with Josy Anne, the singer said leaving the label was not an easy decision.
“Why did I leave? I just wanted more for myself, as a person and as an artist. I wanted more for myself. It was sad, it was depressing, I was tired, I was sick, but it was a decision that I had to make for myself. Yeah, because everyone thought I had it all figured out,” she said.
Liya also said people judged her wrongly during that period and accused her of doing nothing.
“They called me names. People saying, Oh, she’s just lazy. She doesn’t know what she’s doing. They’re just pouring money on her, and she’s not doing anything for over a year or two years. They’d just be like, oh, yeah, you just don’t know what you’re doing. It was my fault,”she said.
She added that things got so bad that she stopped handling her Instagram posts by herself for about two or three years.
“And all that period, I just did not know how to post by myself. For the past two or three years. I never posted myself on Instagram. Yeah. I always have my manager post for me. I mean, we’ll put the pictures and stuff together, slides and everything. But then I just send everything to him. Oh, this is the first slide, second slide,” she said.
Liya, however, praised her manager for staying patient with her through it all.
“He was tired, but I’m so glad he understood. He was very patient with me. He never pushed me or forced me to post myself,” she added.
