Toyin

Biography

A Swiss-Nigerian singer-songwriter and poet, Toyin grew up in Lagos, Nigeria to a diverse mix of music from Fela Kuti, Stevie Wonder, Bon Jovi, Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson, Sade, Seal, King Sunny Ade, Onyeka Onwenu, Shina Peters, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and fell in love with all of them.
She wrote her first song at 7, about her cat and was lucky to have a music teacher at Secondary school (College) who encouraged her to keep writing and composing.
She met Bruno Stettler of Karma Records in Zurich and recorded a house album including the track “Is it Written in the Stars”, which was successful in Eastern Europe before featuring on Lausanne-based French language rapper Alsense’s debut album with the song “Constat”.
Inspired to record her first album, Toyin met Kyle Eastwood and musical partner Michael Stevens at the Montreux Jazz Festival and gave him a copy of her album for his feedback. He loved her her song “Structures” which features on his Metropolitain album as "Live for Life".(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy-D1C0QE8o), recorded live in Paris at Studio Gerber.
Her debut album single "If It Ain't Over" has been playing on Swiss radio Couleur 3 for the past few years. The video of the single was directed by Fred Baillif.

Toyin also writes for local artists: such as the song “Just Between Us” for Geneva-based R&B artist G, featuring Keshia Angeline (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMGxgK_efw0).
She co-wrote the debut album of Franco-Senegalese artist Moh de Diouf (Smile Way of Life) as well as featuring on the songs “So In Love" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjeDxsQGaGA) and "Rock U". (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuCp43NwXo8)
In 2011, "So In Love" won the 1st Prize of the Voter’s Choice at the Afrotainment Music Awards in New York, USA.

Toyin subsequently joined the reggae group Herbalist Crew and co-wrote and composed the album Herbalizm with her song “I Love You Honey” as a solo feature on the album.

In 2020, she released her second album on the MX3 platform and her rap single "My Destiny" was picked up and is currently playing on Couleur 3.
Toyin is currently working on her third album. (All the songs mentioned above can be found on Youtube with the exception of Constat).

Tag: jazz, funky, soulful, spoken word, singer-songwriter