Princess Anne who hails from Akwa Ibom State but grew up in Lagos, later gained admission to Yaba College of Technology, Lagos to study Secretarial Administration. Upon graduation, she got a job with Agip Nigeria. Later she moved on to work in a bank after obtaining a banking certificate.

However, the desire to play music which had been a childhood passion forced her to abandon her job. Today, she has four successful albums. Recently, the award winning artiste spoke with Daily Sun on why she left her job to play music, her plans to re-marry and her kind of man.

Background
My name is Anne Inyang. I was born in Calabar into the family of Pastor and Mrs. Asuquo Inyang of Akwa Ibom State. My parents lived in Calabar but I came to Lagos when I was six years old and I have grown up in Lagos all this while.

I came from the background of The Apostolic Church. After my father died, I actually was not interested in church again until the time I gave my life to Christ in 1984.

I am the second of six children, two girls and four boys. I attended convent school, Calabar and it will interest you to know that I did not go to secondary school. My father died before I could go to secondary school and there was trouble in the family, nobody wanted to have anything to do with us. My mother became a young widow and had to take care of us. She brought us to Lagos, her name is Mary Inyang. She is a woman that worked very hard to take care of us.

Life was really hard. I had to sell orange and food to help my mother. I was able to take care of my brothers in secondary school while I went to an evening school. I did correspondence courses from Exam Success and I got Six As. That was how I was able to gain admission into Yaba College of Technology to read Secretarial Administration. I later did Banking and Finance. After graduation, I worked with Agip Nigeria Limited as Personal Assistant to one of the General Managers.

Later, when I had my banking qualification, I switched over to First Bank.
I have always told people that there is no situation in life that can defeat anybody. All you need to do is to be focused, have a vision and know what you want to be in life.

Early days
I spent ten years in First Bank. I left in 1998 to go into full time music because I could not combine the two, music was too strong in my blood. Music has always been in me. I joined the church choir when I was seven years old. As a child, my mother noticed that I could compose a song with anything. I did not know I had the talent and that was how I started writing songs. I write most of my songs. I prefer to be in the class of people called creators. We create while others copy. I don't like to copy people's songs. The only songs that I have recorded that are people's songs were by permission.

My albums
Music is not about album making. I never thought that I would go into album making. I just wanted to sing and be in a band. When I was younger, I had an all-female band that I formed. We went from place to place performing, even though we were not popular. We were called the Big Four. My kind of music then was not what I am doing now. I really love jazz, which I now do in my evening programmes. I later played African music. I am very versatile. I flow into all kinds of music.

Before I left my job at First Bank, I had a band called Saints Music Band. I used to work on weekdays, then on weekends I go performing. When I left, I now consolidated the band. We were going for shows more regularly, I also had an evening programme that I organised, a night out where christians go out to relax instead of going to a smoke filled environment. I stopped it for a while but it is starting again in May.

Like I told you, I am a songwriter. I have written lots and lots of songs. But that did not mean that I wanted to put an album together. I was just writing and teaching them in the church. Later, I started having the impression that God wanted me to make an album. I do not do anything unless I am led by the spirit of God. So in 1995, I started working on my album which was released in 1996 with the title All the way with Jesus, a 13-tracker. The album had the hit song Akanamkwe which talks about the love of God – an unconditional love.

Why I wrote that song
My husband left me in 1990 and in 1991, there was a day I was driving, I started reflecting on 1st Corinthians Chapter 1 verse 13 which talks about the love of God, an unconditional love. I always exclaim with woyo and sai. So, while reflecting on our separation, and God's unconditional love, I said God would not have left me. So, the tune of that song came – Akanamkwe, Akanan Nkopke meaning: "I have never seen, I have never heard about the love that is like God's love."

That was just the chorus I got, when I got home, I now had to build the body. "God's love is unconditional, it is endless, it does not discriminate, it has no beginning, it has no end." So, I started to write based on that. When my album was released, that song became a hit track, it became so popular at home and even abroad. I think God wanted to reward me. God wanted to lift me up and compensate me for the hurt I suffered.

And that album sold out. Now it has been sent for evergreen album awards because it is almost ten years since it was released but it still sells as if it is a new hit.

Each show I go to, if I do not sing that song, it is as if the show is incomplete. So far, I have four albums, four in audio and six videos. Second album Highly Favoured was released in 1998, third and fourth: Winners Praise I and II were released simultaneously in 2002, they contain praise songs that I wrote. My fifth album will be released in August this year.

Message
Every album has a message, All the way with Jesus was my resolve to get on with my life in spite of what happened to me. I decided to go all the way with Jesus. Second album Highly Favoured was my way of expressing appreciation with my first album which sold so well.

Mission
My mission in music is to make an impact in my generation, in originality. I want to be a voice and not an echo. I want people to know it pays to serve God even with your talent and your music. I know that if I were a secular artiste, I would have gone higher than where I am now. Even as a gospel artiste, I do not put choruses together, which is the vogue now. I call that laziness. That is not my mission in life. I am a musician and I am very proud to be one. I want people to know that God can bless us mightily even in music. He has given me the gift of writing songs and I believe that He will give me a song that is much more than Akanamkwe.

Writing of songs
Anything can happen to you and it becomes an inspiration, or you notice something, it becomes an inspiration. I gladly receive inspiration. Different things inspire me in different ways, either somebody is happy or sad.

Why I sing in native languages
I love native languages. In my second album, I sang in many languages. I speak Igbo and Yoruba languages very well. I am not a tribal singer, so I feel I should be able to communicate with different ethnic groups. I stayed in Libreville for about six months and I happened to life the song Jesus mu wamilele. I knew the artiste. I told her that I wanted to adopt it for my own album and she gave me the go ahead.

Awards
I have won many awards. Best gospel singer, best female singer among others. If you are in my live shows, you will notice that I perform with zeal. I am not a quiet performer, so I have won many awards for my efforts.

Most difficult time as a musician
My most difficult time as a musician was when I had flooding experience. My office was flooded, that was two years ago and I lost all my master CDs, tapes. I lost sleeve notes for CD and video jackets, all gummed together. I had them in hundreds of thousands. That was money gone down the drain. It was terrible for me but I am gradually getting over it.

Challenges
Playing music in Nigeria is very challenging. In America, if you are talented, people simply sign you on, take care of you. All you do is concentrate on your song writing and perform. But here in Nigeria, I have to write the songs, book for the studio with my own money, do the recording and now look for marketers to market my work. Sometimes the condition is not very okay so I have to market my work. It is because of that I had to float a label Saints Music, from where I link up with other marketers to market my work. It is very challenging.

The more the albums the more difficult it is for me because it consumes a lot of money. If you want a very nice video, you will spend not less than N250,000 for one track. Nobody wants to sponsor a gospel artiste because they do not want to be seen to be religious.

As a female and single artiste, you do things on your own, just you and your God. Financially it has not been very easy. I do have shows but at the end of the day, you find out that you spend more than you receive. You are forever trying to promote your music or release new albums.

Other talents
Music is a full time vocation but apart from playing music, I also act. I am an actress. In fact, I was acting before I went into music. I acted in Village Headmaster as a little girl.

I have taken part in stage drama. Recently, I featured in a movie Irrevocable Agreement, which will hit the market this month. I played the role of Ebere, a pastor's wife. A lot of people are now coming to meet me to feature in their movies.
I also write. That's my favourite pastime. At the moment, I am working on two books. I also write for people. I do what is called ghost writing for people.

Musicians in movies
If you are a musician, it is a multi-talented gift. Some musicians can act because it is still in the arts. You can see that Genevieve Nnaji is now singing. You would find out most actors and actresses can sing and even sing very well.

Gospel music in the next five years.
In fact, you would not want to listen to much of foreign music because we are really working hard. Before, gospel music was not very popular in Nigeria because they felt that most gospel artistes were just doing shoddy jobs. We have now decided to put our acts together and work hard so that our work could be accepted internationally, now Nigerian gospel music is being played on Channel 0. Our music is getting better by the day.

Packaging choruses
This new trend of packaging popular church choruses in an album is business. It is not gospel music. The people are just doing it for commercial purposes. Why the business is thriving is because christians are very vulnerable and lazy, I'm sorry to say. They find it difficult to learn new songs. People have come to tell me to do the choruses stuff because it sells fast, I say no. Any song I do, so long as it is good, it will sell. When I say gospel music will go places in this country, I am talking about originality.

Fulfillment
I am fulfilled as an artiste because I enjoy what I am doing. I enjoy performing, I enjoy sitting down in the studio and creating. I love it when people tell me my song has been a blessing to them. There was a time that a couple wrote to me that my song Beautiful Woman, a wedding song brought them back together and that made my day.

It made me fulfilled that I have been a blessing to my world. I did not go into music because of money. I was already in money before I went into full time music. But if God decides to bless me with it, praise

God.
You sang Beautiful Woman, don't you think you are beautiful and should remarry?
Yes, I want to remarry. But you know I have to take my time so as to choose someone who will take me for who I am. Music is my life, so I have to marry somebody who would identify with my vision to help me reach the peak. I believe it will work out before the end of the year.

My kind of man
What I admire in a man is intelligence. I like an intelligent person, someone I can learn from. I also like men who are tall but not fat. I like men who love and fear God. I like mature men, not boys.

Myself
I am simple and intelligent. I am friendly, open and down-to-earth.

Bold step
The bold step I took was to leave the bank and play full time music because I had a every good job. I was a senior manager in the bank and I left that to go into music.

Regrets
No regrets. I don't even regret that my husband left me because it opened doors for me.

Aspiration
I aspire to have a studio where I can produce works for other people. I aspire to be one of the top 5 musicians in Nigeria.