El Mafrex (born Mfreke Obong Ibanga; 14 May 1984) is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

-born,

urban gospel Urban/contemporary gospel, also known as urban gospel music, urban gospel pop, or just simply urban gospel, is a modern subgenre of gospel music. Although the style developed gradually, early forms are generally dated to the 1970s, and the genr ...

singer-songwriter, based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. He was nominated for Best Gospel Act consecutively at the 2012 and 2013 editions of the (

MOBO Modern Baseball (sometimes abbreviated as MoBo) was an American emo band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, consisting of Bren Lukens, Jake Ewald, Sean Huber, and Ian Farmer. The band formed in 2012 at Drexel University and released their first ...

)

Music of Black Origin Awards The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and Ba ...

. He won Artiste of the year and Urban Recording of the year at the 2012 Scottish New Music Awards, making him the first black man to win the SNMA. His song, "Jehovah", which features

Christian rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. This music is typically performed by Christians, Christian individuals. The extent to whi ...

band

Royal Foundlings Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, ...

had more than 500,000 hits in the first five months of its release on YouTube. He released "That Man from Galilee" in the first quarter of 2013, which debuted at no 49 on the

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

UK Chart for Gospel and had over a million hits on YouTube in its first 6 months. On 30 September 2012, he was featured in the '' Sunday Mail''. He was nominated for the Season 8 of

The Future Awards Africa The Future Awards Africa (previously known as The Future Awards) are a set of awards given by The Future Project, a social enterprise communications firm affiliated to Red Africa. The awards are intended to celebrate young people between the ag ...

on 10 July 2013.

Early life and education

He was born in Nigeria and educated at the

Nigerian Military School The Nigerian Military School, Zaria, popularly known as (NMS), is a military boarding school in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, affiliated with the Armed Forces of Nigeria. History Boys Company It was founded as the Boys Company of Nigeria i ...

Zaria Zaria is a List of Nigerian cities by population, metropolitan city in Nigeria, located at present time within four local government areas in Kaduna State. It serves as the capital of the Zazzau Emirate Council and is one of the original sev ...

Kaduna State Kaduna (, جىِهَر كَدُنا; مدينة كدونا; , ; ) is a States of Nigeria, state in the northwest geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The state capital is its namesake, the city of Kaduna (city), Kaduna, which was the List of Nigerian ...

. He graduated in 2006 from the

University of Uyo The University of Uyo is located in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The university was formerly known as the University of Cross River State. On 1 October 1991, the Federal government of Nigeria established it as a Federal Univer ...

Akwa Ibom State Akwa Ibom is a States of Nigeria, state in the South South, South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It borders Cross River State to the east, Rivers State and Abia State to the west and north-west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. The state ...

, where he studied physics and majored in

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

. In 2010, he obtained a master's degree in information-systems development from the

Edinburgh Napier University Edinburgh Napier University () is a public university in Edinburgh, Scotland. Napier Technical College, the predecessor of the university, was founded in 1964, taking its name from 16th-century Scottish mathematician and philosopher John Napie ...

Career

El Mafrex ministering at Ibom International Stadium

In 2001, El Mafrex started a boy band, M.O.D. (Men of Destiny), and was the lead vocalist of the five-man group. The band toured and played shows in Nigeria, especially in its south-south region before later expanding from a boy band to a family project. The family project gave birth to the Destiny Kids and MOD dancers. While in the University of Uyo, he formed another boy band, Da Grooves, made up of Louis and GeePee. Together they played gigs on campus and its environs. At the end of 2004, he left the band to start his own solo career, which he called the "el MAFREX" project. He was voted Artiste of the year in 2005 by the SUG of University of Uyo, and his songs "Rhythm in the Air" and "Esio Mkpo" were played on radio and television stations in Nigeria. "Rhythm in the Air" won song of the month, on the then Cosmo FM Enugu. On 21 December 2013, el Mafrex headlined the Sixth edition of the

Government Christmas Carol (9999 Carol SIngers) night with other International gospel artists like

Israel Houghton Israel Houghton (; born May 19, 1971) is an American contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, producer, and worship leader. His worship team is credited as Israel & New Breed. Musical career Houghton produced an album by Michael Gungo ...

, South African gospel legend Lionel Peterson and Nigerian Gospel acts like Frank Edwards, Aity Dennis, Freke' and Nathaniel Bassey. He led a Reggae praise session in the Guinness book of world records listed event at the

Uyo Township Stadium Uyo Township Stadium is a multi-use stadium located in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. It is used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Akwa United F.C. of the Nigerian Premier League. It is also a center for social ...

STV interview

In November 2012, he was interviewed by Scottish television news STV, where he talked about his music and recent MOBO Awards nomination.

Business interest

El Mafrex has other interests besides music as he prepares to launch his own line of designers eyeglasses. He told ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' that he had his own personal sunglasses customized specially for himself and has since received compliments from many people who are interested in acquiring them, which has propelled him towards the direction of having a line for his sunglasses. The name of the line would be 3:16 derived from the Bible verse, John 3:16.

Singles

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mafrex, El Living people 1984 births 21st-century Black British male singers 21st-century British male singers 21st-century Nigerian male singers Alumni of Edinburgh Napier University British gospel singers Black British male rappers British male rappers 21st-century male rappers British performers of Christian hip-hop British reggae musicians British contemporary R&B singers Nigerian hip-hop singers Nigerian expatriates in Scotland 21st-century Nigerian singer-songwriters Nigerian Military School alumni Scottish singer-songwriters Urban contemporary gospel musicians University of Uyo alumni 21st-century Scottish male singers British male singer-songwriters