From an abusive childhood to winning ‘The Voice’: Meet the Nigerian singer who become the First African to win ‘The Voice’

And it seems that their talent stretches beyond the continent’s borders with Nigerian artistes like TinieTempah, Skepta and Kevin Olusola the beatboxer of Grammy-award winning band Pentatonix wowing the world with their talent.

Now there is another win for Nigeria after Mo Adeniran won ‘The Voice’ beating out other exceptionally gifted artistes like Jamie and Welsh duo 'Into the Ark'.

Despite the curse that has befallen many singing reality shows where singers careers refuse to take off after their win, Mo is positive that he won’t be afflicted by the curse. Trained by the very talented Jennifer Hudson, he believes that he is the exception to the rule.

“Every show has the so-called curse and people seem to think it will stay around forever. I am motivated, I am passionate and this is what I have wanted to do my entire life. It might sound big headed but I don’t think there has been an artist like me on The Voice. My life has prepared me for this career so I am not worried about the curse. I feel like in a year we will look back on this conversation and I will say ‘I told you so’.” He told the Mirror.

And this life he speaks of is his turbulent and physically abusive childhood courtesy of his adopted mother.

“I had to be taken off my adopted mom. To put it bluntly, she wasn’t the nicest person. Social services stepped in. They saved me. It was a physical thing. She could be very hands on at times. Things happened that weren’t right. My mind wasn’t in the right place.” He said during an interview with Daily Star.

A situation that drove him to a life of binge drinking and wild partying in his teenage years as he didn’t want to face what had happened in his life. But at some point he decided that he had to get over it and put his life in order because after all, one can't run forever.

Regrettably, after his rough childhood and difficult teenage years, life still had a couple of nasty surprises for him as he lost friends who were more like family to drugs and an accident. One of his friends overdosed on painkillers while his other friends from the indie rock group 'Viola Beach' and their manager died after their car plunged into a canal after a performance in Sweden in 2016.

An incident that Mo describes as very difficult as he is still coming to terms with losing his friends and he hopes that one day he can perform a tribute worthy of their name.

Meanwhile, Mo is very determined to take over the music scene and why not? He has the voice of a thousand soulful singers of the past, the kind that reaches into your soul and takes you away into a musical stupor.

Plus he is down-to-earth and we all know that being humble saves you from getting too obsessed with the trappings of fame and feeling that you have ‘made it’ that you are ‘invincible'; factors which have led to the fall of many a talented musician.

Also Read: 9 African musicians who waved the continent’s flag internationally by winning a coveted Grammy award (Photos)