Wunmi: From Cinderella to Dancing Queen

Singer, dancer, and fashion designer, Wunmi, short for Ibiwunmi, meaning “a birth loved, a child loved, a life loved”, is a force of nature, but it took her a long time before she felt she could step into her name and really own it. Abandoned by her mother and sent to live with family in Nigeria by her father, Wunmi grew up fantasizing over and yearning for her mother’s love. Feeling deeply lost and invisible, clothing and dancing became a way for her to be seen, “I didn't want to dress like anybody else. I didn't want to dance like anybody else. I didn't want to sing like anybody else. I needed to find me because I felt so lost. I wasn't somebody that felt was wanted initially, so I need to be needed.” It was acting on this deep-rooted desire that got Wunmi noticed by Roy Ayers and led to her becoming the iconic dancing silhouette on Soul II Soul’s biggest hits in the late 80s (Back to Life, Keep on Moving). It was also Roy Ayers, her Fairy Godfather, who persuaded Wunmi she could sing, and it is through a continuation of all these expressions, singing, dancing, and style, that Wunmi was able to heal her wounded child and declare, “Wunmi Ibiwunmi is finally grown.”

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