Oluwatobi Ayokunle Ibitoye (born 9 August 1993) better known as Tobi Ibitoye, is a

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...

n-born

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

n singer and songwriter from

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...

. He was a finalist on 5th edition of

The Voice of Romania ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

and is now signed to an independent record label in

, Uninvited Artists. He is also the first and only Black man to have been listed on

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

top 30 under 30 list in the year 2016. He moved to

at the age of fifteen in 2009 and delved into music right after his appearance on the TV show. His influences include genres such as pop,

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

and

electronic music Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...

Childhood and education

Tobi Ibitoye was born on 9 August 1993 in Zone 2 of the Wuse District in Abuja. He had his primary and secondary education in

's capital and at the age of 15, he moved to

with his parents, due to his father's engagement to the Nigerian embassy in Romania. Tobi continued his studies at the International School of Bucharest and went on finish his high school education at the Cambridge School of Bucharest. He went on to study

Biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology ...

at the Faculty of

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditar ...

of the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princ ...

. He first encountered music at church during regular Sunday service. At the age of ten, he started experimenting with his mother's violin and has since maintained an affinity for this instrument.

Music career

The Voice of Romania

In August 2015, Tobi appeared on the Voice of Romania performing James Brown's

It's a man's man's man's World "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" is a song written by James Brown and Betty Jean Newsome. Brown recorded it on February 16, 1966, in a New York City studio and released it as a single later that year. It reached No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' R&B ...

. He continued in the competition with Andrei Tiberiu Maria as his mentor and made it to the finals of the competition, where he finished as the second runner up. The impact of his performances on the show was applauded by the Romanian media, especially Forbes Romania, who listed him as one of the most influential people living in Romania under the age of 30 in their annual Top 30 under 30 list for the year 2016, making him the first and only black man to have been on such a list.

Releases

The Finals of the Voice of Romania served as a premier for Tobi Ibitoye, who launched his music career and his first single: "Miss You" produced by ''Hahaha Production'', and signed by the Media Pro Music a subsidiary of

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

, on the night of the finals. A few months after the contest, he had to return for a short period of time to his native country, after which he returned to Bucharest and started working on new records with the producers from ''HaHaHa Production.'' In the summer of 2018, he signed a record deal with one of the newest Independent Record Labels in Romania, Uninvited Artist, through which his second single Loving me was released. His second single was remixed by Alin Dumitriu and this remix premiered on

Dance FM Dance FM is a clubbing radio station from Romania, which is owned by RCS & RDS Digi Communications, also known as RCS & RDS, is a Romanian telecommunication holding company operating in Romania, Hungary, Spain and Italy. Digi was founded ...

Bucharest's weekly top 20, on which it was listed for six weeks. It was also listed on

Bucharest's top 50 records for the year 2018. Loving me also joined the list of Romanian produced records made available on the streaming platform of America's leading Radio Station,

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbrella brand for iHear ...

Tobi's story also attracted the attention of foreign media such as BBC, whose report focused on the challenges of his early days in Bucharest. "Faith", in collaboration with Gabriel M, set new records for the artist, after entering

Bucharest's weekly Top 20 where it remained for nine weeks; it is also being broadcast on

UTV Romania UTV is a Romanian free-to-air music television channel located in Bucharest owned by ''RCS & RDS S.A.''. It was launched in late 2005 under the slogan "All I want for Christmas is U". It belonged to UTI GROUP, but was later sold to RCS RDS. It ...

Discography

Singles

* ''Miss You'' (2015) * ''Loving me'' and ''Remix'' (2018) * ''Come home'' (2018) * ''Real'' – Deja Who (2018) * ''Love and A Song'' (2020)

Collaborations

* ''Beating heart'' – Andre Rizo (2018) * ''Real'' – Deja Who (2018) * ''Faith'' – Gabriel M (2019) *J'ai besoin de toi – Mark Azekko ft. Eneli *Mystery – Aspra *Sun – Sasha Lopez & Diotic *Nowhere – Eneli *Dirty Diamonds – Vanotek *OK - Deejay Fly *LUV - RIME *Way Up - Amari

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibitoye, Tobi 1993 births Living people Nigerian pop singers Romanian pop singers Naturalised citizens of Romania Romanian people of Nigerian descent Romanian electronic musicians University of Bucharest alumni