BN Saturday Celebrity Interview: “I Don’t Think I’ve Ever Been As Beautiful As When I Was Pregnant” Inspiration FM OAP Titi Oyinsan Speaks for the First Time Since She Became A Mother of Twins

Being healthy is more important to me than being acceptable to society”

Beginning her sojourn into the entertainment industry as a model, the young Titi Oyinsan (nee Adelagun) found massive success from TV commercials, billboards and press campaigns. Having been in some iconic ads for Fanta, Close-Up toothpaste, Cowbell milk, True Love magazine, Coca-Cola and many more, Titi meteorically rose to fame.

From TV commercials to presenting on Nigezie and Soundcity, the MBGN 2007 Miss Lagos soon became a media darling gaining her the nickname ‘Titi Fanta’. She also had stints as a music video model featuring in 2Face Idibia’s “Keep On Rockin’ ”, Shank’s “Julie”, the Freewindz’s “That Girl” and most recently in Lagbaja’s “Knock Knock Knock”.

An on-air personality at Inspiration FM Lagos, Titi got married to a fellow on-air personality, Gbemileke Oscar Oyinsan of City FM Lagos back in April 2012. Titi welcomed BN exclusively to her home to meet her beautiful baby girls, Amber and Ruby; and to talk about her pregnancy, newly found motherhood, her relationship with her husband, her humble beginnings and upcoming projects.

Before you got into radio, you had a very buoyant career as a model and TV personality. Some people may still recognize you as ‘Titi Fanta’. How did you get started in the entertainment industry?

Well, I started working in the industry a very long time ago. I’ve done numerous different things in the industry ranging from helping plan events to modelling. Modelling was a very big part of my life as I did a lot of TV commercials, runway work in and out of Nigeria; I did a lot of music videos as well. A big shout-out to Tosin Martins; I was the bride in his “Olo Mi” video. It’s always a great experience doing music videos, especially when your role gets a little complicated along the way. On set, it’s always fun. See more photo and read the rest of the interview after the cut.....

It all started with modelling for you.

Yes, it was a means to end for me. Basically, what we had was a young girl who was trying to push herself through school, university and I needed a means to do that. Modelling just created a major opening for me as it was a great means for me to make a lot of money from just taking pictures. And, modelling really worked out for me as it gave me an opportunity to meet a lot of people, mix in different circles from what I was used to and helped me come out of my shell.

The truth is that my goal was never to become a supermodel. It was not my intention to get so big in the industry or get so well-known but in order to get more and more work in modelling, I had to put myself out there. I needed to keep in touch, stay in the limelight and be at the places where things were happening.

How did you get started on TV?
From modelling, I went into TV sort of by default because a lot of the producers that I worked with advised me to try out TV. So, I started off working for the NTA. It was a really great experience because they have a lot of great and fantastic equipment that you can use to train. I got a lot of experience from there because it was a very professional environment. I worked with Nigezie as well. Kwame was like a godfather and is a really really great friend. I worked on a few programs for him and did a few red carpets for him as well, right before moving to Soundcity.

At Soundcity, it was also another fantastic experience. I went almost all over Nigeria with the crew – a lot of very eccentric people. Big shout out to Illrymz, Denrele, Yinka, S.dot, Pearl, Onyinye and Olamidas. Now, there are so many great things happening for everyone who worked on that team. When you work with a great team, you’re going to grow and you are going to want to move forward. For me, it was always about moving forward to the next big thing. I wasn’t sure what I was going to be but I always knew something was going to come.

So the next big thing for you after Soundcity was radio?

Yes. I heard there was this new radio station opening called Inspiration FM and it gave me an opportunity to do what I always wanted to do. I recall when I represented Lagos in the top ten for the 2007 MBGN beauty pageant. As Miss Lagos, there was a ‘weight’ of representing your state and I didn’t get to a stage in that competition where I could give back, where I could make that much of an impact; but right now on the radio, I have that opportunity to give back, to actually touch people’s lives. I think radio is my longest stint ever and I find that it’s a little more taxing. I believe radio is a lot more hard work than TV or modelling.

Why do you think so?

With a pretty face, anyone can hold a television screen or make you buy a magazine but the truth is a pretty face isn’t what you need with radio. On radio, whatever you say must be profound enough to keep someone’s attention. Someone said the attention span of the average listener is just thirty seconds so, if in thirty seconds, you haven’t said something important enough for people to stay on that radio station then you haven’t made a positive impact. If they stay up to one minute or more, you have a chance to impact that person’s life. If they stay up to thirty minutes or an hour, then you have ‘connected’, you’ve gained a followership and people will remember you. They will remember you, not because you have the latest hair or the newest fashion but because you said something that made an impact in their life and that’s why radio is really important to me. I learnt a lot from Sunny Irabor and Wale Ewedemi. Big shout out to my husband, Oscar for being the one who really trained me in radio. He’s now the head of programmes for City FM and I believe he’s now where he’s been called to be.

How did you and and your husband Oscar Oyinsan meet?

It was very simple. Denrele, who is an ex-boyfriend of mine (I dated him when I was still a teenager), was having a birthday party and Oscar, who was working for Showtime Africa at the time, was also working the red carpet with me. For a brief moment, there just happened to be a lull in time when we were interviewing each other.

What were Oscar’s first words to you?

I actually cannot recall his first words to me but all I remember is that I needed to interview at least twenty people on that red carpet and I had reached about fifteen when I saw this guy in a very bright pink shirt. I thought it would look good on camera so I just pulled him towards my camera and started the interview. After convincing him that he looked great, I conducted my interview and for some reason, this guy in the pink shirt just never left me for the rest of the night. I actually began to think we had met before or that he was a really close friend of Denrele because he kept on checking up on me to make sure I was having a great night. So, because of that, I was very cordial and nice. I meet a lot of people at events so I didn’t want a situation where it would seem like I was snubbing someone that ‘I knew’, not knowing that I had never met him before.

 

by ONOS O