’Nonye Ben-Nwankwo and Ademola Olonilua
Although it is almost a decade that highlife legend, Oliver de Coque died, none of his five children who are all doing music has been able beat the late veteran’s legacy.
In a recent chat with Saturday Beats, his second son, Darlington, who is fondly referred to as Safin de Coque, admitted that it was impossible to surpass their father’s legacy.
“I have a new album titled Opportunity. I don’t think any of my father’s children would surpass his record in highlife, we can only try but there can only be one Oliver de Coque. We are only living under his glory. We would find it very hard to break his record. Don’t forget my father had been making waves even before the advent of internet and social media. I am just being truthful and realistic; I cannot beat my father’s record,” he said.
Although in his late 20s, the young man who lost his mother while he was still very young shared how his father played the role of both parents.
“Growing up without my mother was lonely and quite painful. Once you do not have a mother, that loneliness is always there. I went to the boarding school and in those days during visiting day, I would see my peers’ parents visit them but I did not have a mother to visit me. No matter how famous or rich I’d become tomorrow, that void would always be there. Money cannot change that. I miss my mother a lot.
“It was not easy for my father but he tried his best. He did not want me to feel the vacuum so whenever he was going to events or shows, he would take me along with him. When he travelled to the US in 1994 to represent Nigeria, he took me along with him and I was barely nine years old. But he tried his best by playing the role of a mother and father,” he said.
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