Artist Profile: Patti Boulaye
Actress, singer, model, writer, and humanitarian, Nigerian-born, British-raised Patti Boulaye has had a decades-long, award-winning career. Known for her performances on stage, in film, commercials, and more, the “Stop It I Like It” singer has left her mark on the entertainment industry worldwide.
Born Patricia Ngozi Ebigwei in 1954, the multitalented artist entered the world in motion, delivered inside a taxi travelling between Asaba and Onitsha. Of Igbo and Efik heritage, Patti Boulaye was the seventh of nine children, born into a family of high achievers such as engineers and politicians, including the late pilot Tony Ebigwei.
After surviving the horrors of the Biafran War as a child, Boulaye joined a convent in Lagos. While considering becoming a nun, she travelled to the United Kingdom and, while there, mistook a queue for auditions for the musical Hair as the line for Madame Tussauds. She ended up trying out for a role in the musical and landed a part. That accidental mix-up launched Boulaye’s career in entertainment.
Though Patti Boulaye is well known for starring in Lux soap adverts, her stage work, and films like Hussy and Bisi, Daughter of the River, there hasn’t been much focus on her career as a singer-songwriter. By the time she appeared on British television talent show New Faces in 1978, Boulaye had already released her debut solo album, Patti Boulaye, two years prior.
Between 1978 and 2004, she released at least four more albums covering a myriad of genres. These included “You Stepped Into My Life,” “Magic,” and “Into His Kingdom.” Boulaye collaborated with writer Charles Blackwell and producer (and husband) Stephen Komlosy on several of these records, which she occasionally wrote and produced herself. The albums analysed styles ranging from ’70s/’80s funk and disco to pop, soul, gospel, and even incorporated indigenous African melodies.
Now in her seventh decade, Patti Boulaye continues her artistic journey through her YouTube channel and her current stage work in the musical Mary Poppins. She may not always be recognised as an icon in Nigerian entertainment due to her move abroad at a young age. Still, her impact on Nigerian pop culture resonated strongly in the ’70s and ’80s and endures today in the memories of older Nigerians and the discoveries of a new generation.