From Rags to Rich in Christ

MUSIC CAREER 

Muyiwa is a British Gospel singer and songwriter who mixes traditional gospel music with elements of world music (from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia), soul, R&B and pop.  He is also an experienced performer, broadcaster, and presenter.  In 2009, he became the first-ever international act to perform on America's popular entertainment channel, BET, for the prestigious annual Celebration of Gospel show.  He has hosted CBN’s TPI program to an estimated global audience of 70 million.  With his group Riversongz, he sold out Indigo2 at the O2 arena in London, the first gospel act to do so, and he has played at the largest gospel music event in the world, The Experience, attracting a 500,000-strong audience.

As a broadcaster for many years, Muyiwa hosts Premier Radio's flagship programs Gospel Tonight and Worship Tonight -- to an audience of 500,000 listeners.  He’s also the Station Director for Premier, the number-one gospel music station in the UK, boasting a listenership of 180,000 a month.  His talents extend to Lufthansa Airlines, the home of Sounds of Africa, a radio show hosted by Muyiwa, as well Kenya Airways and Namibia Airlines, for whom he hosts Jewels of Africa, a video production. 

Muyiwa has appeared as a judge for numerous events and as a celebrity judge for five seasons on the BBC Songs of Praise, Gospel Choir of the Year Competition.

Nominated by secular music executives, Muyiwa was the first Christian artist in the UK to be appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honors for service to music.  This honor means a great deal to him, as it acknowledges his years of encouraging people in the Lord through music, and making a difference in this world.    

ROUGH START IN LIFE 

Born in Nigeria, Muyiwa lived the first nine years of his life there with his headmaster father, whom he calls "the giant of my life," and his radio broadcaster mother.  His earliest musical memories there are of listening not to R&B but church music.  By the time he was nine, there had been a great economic collapse and his parents decided he would have a better life in London with people they knew there.  Although he had contact with his parents through phone calls, he didn’t return to Nigeria until he was 26 years old.  

The first place he lived was with an uncle.  “It was a horrid experience," he shudders. "The cold hit me upside my head.  My uncle said to me, 'You're going to suffer here.' I thought, 'Whoa, what's this?' I had none of the comforts of parental guidance and cover.  I was just a burden to these people.  I felt lost.”  Muyiwa lived with a series of different families, and when he was just 12 years old, he was asked to leave one home.  He cried as he walked down the street with a bag of his belongings.  Adding insult to injury, the bag broke and all his things spilled out onto the pavement.  He wound up living with a different, distant uncle, "a young Nigerian guy, very flashy and a druggy," who made Muyiwa feel physically unsafe.  “I lived there for a couple of years," he recalls. "But I didn't beg my mum to take me back – it wasn't part of the culture, to challenge the wisdom of adults.”  This period in his life was, he admits, "traumatic – I felt like I was in a daze.”  He was tempted to go the druggy route, even to become a male escort. But he knew how much trouble he’d have with his parents, so he kept to the straight and narrow.  Kids in school teased him, leaving bananas at his table, and calling him the “f-ing African.”  

It was also around this time that Muyiwa became part of the youth group at a church.  Listening to a message there one day, he recalls the pastor painting a picture of a God who is good.  Muyiwa recalls saying in his heart, “I want you to be in my life.”  Nothing dramatic followed, but the church became the closest thing to having a family that he experienced since leaving Nigeria.  He describes it as the only constant in his life – "even amidst the chaos of our home lives.”  This was also his introduction to gospel music. "Before that," he explains, "it was all hymns.  It was a revelation.  I could feel the energy of the music. The church had loads of Africans in and I felt like I was part of a family.”  Thankfully, he also lived a more settled life with his older sister in a flat.  

After college, Muyiwa worked at Sony, doing international promotion for artists like Mariah Carey, Aerosmith, and Maxwell.  He wanted to be an artist himself, but nothing came of it … until he became a worship leader years later.  

To find out more about TPI (Truth, Power, Inspiration) or watch the newest episodes click the LINK! 

CREDITS

Host, CBN’s TPI (truth, power, inspiration) program since 2010 / British gospel singer and songwriter with the group Riversongz since 2002 / Station Director since 2013, and radio host, Premier Radio, the UK’s number one gospel radio station / appointed officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honors for his service to music / Business and Finance degree from East London University and Music degree from Westminster University / Married to Lola, two teenage sons