Iyanya is one of Nigeria’s best and popularly talented and good looking musicians. He was first known after he emerged as the winner for the first season of 2008 MTN Project Fame West Africa.
Iyanya apart from being a fast rising musician has being nominated and awarded many times and in this article we will let you know all it is to know about Iyanya, starting from his biography till his net worth.
Iyanya Profile
- Full Name: Iyanya Onoyom Mbuk
- Age: 34 years old
- Nationality: Nigerian
- State of Origin: Cross River
- State of residence: Lagos
- Marital status: Single
- Occupation: Singer, songwriter, performer
Iyanya Age
Iyanya was born on 31st October, 1986 in the beautiful city of Calabar at Palm Street in Cross River State, which is located in the southern part of Nigeria.
Iyanya grew up in a disciplined home which was powered by his mother(head mistress by profession) and his father (forester by profession) who unfortunately passed away together with his elder brother in 2008.
Iyanya Education
Iyanya grew up in Calabar where he completed his primary and high School at Calabar. Iyanya having a solid background on education went ahead to study business management in the prestigious University of Calabar.
It was there he graduated with a degree in business management.
Iyanya Career
After completing his tertiary education, Iyanya began hustling by managing a local bar and performing at Karaokes at Fiesta Fries Bar, Mirage Nite Club, and West-Life clubs.
During one of Iyanya’s performance, he came in contact with a Nigerian musician name KCee, who encourage him to participate in the 2008 first season of Project Fame West Africa.
It was during this competition that the name “Iyanya” began reaching the entire region of west Africa, as he emerged the winner of the 2008 first season of Project Fame West Africa.
This award was the stepping stone into Iyanya’s career, as he harnessed this opportunity and released a debut album titled ‘My Story’. This was bold move even though it did not turn out well, due to the failure that surrounded it’s distribution.
Despite the major set back in his career early days, Iyanya kept on pushing and decided to visit home. It was there he saw his people’s love for the “Etighi” dance steps and grasp the opportunities surrounding it.
Iyanya released a major hit song “Kukere” which was produced by DTunes. This single song made the “Etighi” dance steps more popular and brought his home town into light and overseas.
After this successful single, he recorded another amazing single title “Ur Waist” featuring Emma Nyra.
In 2011, Iyanya co-founded the record label “Made Men Music Group” with the famous Ubi Franklin but left the label after some years later.
Apart from “Kukere” he had also recorded many singles such as “Flavour”, “Sexy Mama” featuring Wizkid in 2013, “Jombolo” featuring Flavour N’abania,”Head Swell”, “She Can Get It”, “Le Kwa Ukwu”, “Story Story” featuring Oritse Femi in 2014, “Mr Oreo”, “Ijeoma” featuring peruzzi in 2019.
Iyanya is very versatile as he into Afrobeats and R&B. Although his first genre of music was rap music but switched to Afrobeats and R&B. Being a performer, he has performed in a lot of places both home and abroad.
In 2012, he performed at the Nigerian famous comedian “AY”, at his show held at the INDIGO2 arena. Iyanya also took an international tour and performed together with Tonto Dikeh and Emma Nyra. This tour started in London and ended in Manchester.
In 2013, Iyanya took another international tour with Emma Nyra across the United State and Canada in early 2013. He performed at the Shrine in Chicago on 11th April, 2013 and at the African Muzik Magazine that was launched on 12th of April, 2013, Dallas, Texas.
In 2013, he had a Cameo appearance at the famous TV series “Shuga” in season 3.
Apart from singing and performing, he also an ambassador and has signed endorsement deals with Solo Phones Nigeria on the 16 of October 2013 worth 35 million Naira.
Also in 2013, according to Daily Independent newspaper reports, Iyanya signed a one-year deal with Nigeria’s first certified branded computers “Zinox Computers”. This deal was worth $300,000. In 2014, Iyanya got another amazing deal with Toyota Prado.
Iyanya Relationship
What’s a celebrity life without controversies, well Iyanya is no foreigner to this as there has been a lot of controversies about his love life.
However Iyanya has dated a lot of high profile women in the likes of Freda Francis(CEO of Oasis spa), Yvonne Nelson (Ghanaian model and actress) and Tonto Dikeh (Nigerian artist). Iyanya fans are actually looking forward to meet “The One”.
Iyanya Achievement
Iyanya emerged as the winner of the Best Contemporary Afro (Live Beats choice) at the 2012 Nigeria Music Video Awards (NMVA), Musician of the Year (Male) and Most Popular Song of the Year at the 2012 City People Entertainment Awards.
Iyanya was nominated for Best R&B/Pop Album, Album of the Year, Best Pop Single, Song of the Year and Best High Life Video at the 2013 Nigeria Music Video Awards (NMVA).
In 2013, Iyanya also won the Best High Life Video and Best Use of Choreography at the Nigeria Music Video Awards (NMVA).
Iyanya was nominated for Musician of the Year (Male) at the 2014 City People Entertainment Awards.
In 2014, Iyanya won the award for Best Male Vocal and Best Dance in a Video at the African Muzik Magazine Awards.
Iyanya was nominated for World’s Best Song, World’s Best Video, World’s Best Male Artist, World’s Best Live Act and World’s Best Entertainer of The Year at the 2014 World Music Awards.
Iyanya Net Worth
Iyanya has an estimated net worth of $5 million.
