Daughter of former Cross River State governor, XERONA DUKE, loves, lives and plays music. In this interview, she shares with FUNKE OSAE-BROWN her interest in music.
Her dexterity on the guitar speaks to the kind of musician she is grooming herself to be in an era in Nigeria when some musicians cannot even play a musical instrument. Painstakingly, she has learnt how to play the guitar, an instrument she has been playing since she was 14.
Welcome to the world of Xerona Duke, the first daughter of former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke. A graduate of Law, she studied at the University of Nottingham and University of Pennsylvania for her first degree and Masters respectively. In addition, she studied music at MUSON School of Music, Lagos where she learnt how to play the piano.
“I play the piano, guitar and the saxophone. I also sing. I write my songs myself. I write for myself and for other people. I have been playing the piano since I was five and the guitar since I was 14. Music was my first love. I studied law but now I am taking music a lot more serious and I am pursuing that,” she says.
The 27-year-old was named Xerona by her father who saw the name in a dream. Her father is from Cross River State while her mother hails from Rivers State. Her Efik name is Arit and her Calabari name is Lolia. But she is fondly called Xerona by everyone. “I was actually named after my grandmother, Genevieve so I bear Xerona and Genevieve but most people know me as Xerona,” she explains.
She has been working with Nigerian artistes Niyola.
She has been working with Nigerian artistes Niyola, Ice Prince and another international artiste that would be disclosed soon. She is currently working on her debut album due to be released in the next few months.
“We are finishing up the recording and trying to tighten everything before we release, so I performed one of the songs that would be on the album at the Jazz Meets Runway event in April.”
Xerona sure takes after his father when it comes to music. However, their taste for it differ. “Musically, we have different taste but at the core of it are the kind of music I grew up with like the High life. The funky and all of the old music, formed the foundation of my music. I like to expand and grow even now if you ask what direction my music is, I couldn’t tell you. All I know is I just love to make music. If you want music through Afro beat, through instrumentalist, with a jazz beat, no problem. I just love to make music and I think it’s because of the impact my dad had on me. His music style goes back and forth, he enjoys some of the music but he is very much old school and I am new school.”
To show they both have a mutual love for music, she performed one of her favourite songs with her father at the Jazz Meets Runway. “He’s not really going to tell but he’s been very supportive of my music. I looked forward to performing one of my music with him at the event, and it turned out to be a great outing.”
It is not just Xerona and her father who are into music, her mother and sisters also love music.
“My mum kept me on the piano when I was 5-years-old, like you will learn to play the piano. My mum is a musician herself. We like to call her the choir conductor of the family but she was massively into me learning to play the piano. Once we turned five, we started learning the piano. We did learn different instruments.
“While learning one, you could pick another one alongside. I play a saxophone because my dad plays a saxophone. My younger sisters also play other musical instruments. When we were done with one, we picked another one to learn. But the guitar is the one I decided that I was going to push for in music on my own to create an image for myself. I don’t think I got their expressed permission but I think it was more like, they told me to do it and I happened to love it.”
Xerona loves the guitar
Xerona had earlier performed at Niyola’s show last December at the Bridge in Lagos. She did another performance later but the style of music she did there was very different. She wanted to experiment and bring in electro feel in the Nigerian industry. She had also performed on a certain Christmas night at the Calabar Carnival some years ago.
“I really like Korede Bello, I know he’s not what you are talking about but I really like his music. Olamide of course, Davido I don’t know who produces their songs but I have to look into that. I like Tiwa Savage also, Omowunmi, Runtown, I really love his song “Mad Over You”. I did a cover on the song and I just left it on my computer and maybe I will actually take my hands off my eyes and actually release it.”
When asked what does it take to be the daughter of Donald Duke? She says:
“I don’t know but it takes you to learn to watch what other people do. You know, you are exposed to a lot of influential people, a lot of people who make moves in the country, so you have to take advantage of that and learn from them, learn from your older ones, your parents. Especially now we are in the public eye globally, we all need to step up and be like representatives in Nigeria.”
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