What Goldie’s Last Interview Says About Her

In her short, but colourful music career, Susan Oluwabimpe Harvey, better known as Goldie, attracted a huge amount of public attention. It was the same in death, which occurred on 14 February. One of the first posthumous surprises sprung on the public was the disclosure that she was secretly married to Andrew Harvey, a Briton, while ostensibly keeping an intimate relationship with Prezzo, her Big Brother Africa Housemate. This quickly produced a sequel, when a woman named Ifeoma Harvey claimed via Facebook that Goldie snatched her husband. Many did not like the fact that she kept her marital status secret and since her death, the Ikole Ekiti-born artiste has been painted in very negative colours.

Who, indeed, was Goldie? In the last interview she granted a national daily, Goldie made many disclosures about her person.

She cast herself as a hardworking artiste, who was not only independent and determined not just to succeed, but also to satisfy her fans. That, perhaps, explains her individuality and unconventional dress sense.  She believed costumes and make-up are essential parts of performance. Asked who her role models were, she said: “Somebody who has done the unusual. I don’t like everyday people, I mean people who are not creative, people who don’t just get doing one thing everyday.” Goldie also said she never favoured having a collaboration with any artiste because of the need to get closer to her fans. And to the rumour that she preferred hanging out with women to men, she said she was too busy to have a girlfriend. “I don’t even have a girlfriend; my work does not even allow me to have friends. Just as I said earlier on, I don’t  go out clubbing. I only go out for events… I am too busy to have a friend and you know, you have to have time for your friend and I don’t have that time. I am always too busy to hang around, ” she explained.

Goldie never saw herself as a sex symbol. Rather than devote her time to building a cult followership, she focused on her music and performances. That, she believed, would determine whether she would succeed as an artiste or not.  She believed she was loved not because of her delectable looks but for her music. “Everybody who loves me, loves me for my personality, my works. I have been fortunate that I do not have male fans who say: ‘Oh Goldie, you are sexy.’ I think I have been lucky in that aspect. I am not saying it is a bad thing to be sexy. I think people see me more as hardworking than a sex symbol and it’s a good thing.”  She also gave her view about sex. “I think sex has been overrated…I personally believe if you have too much sex, it could affect your creativity. So, I don’t like to have sex when I am working.”

Why did Goldie kept her marriage secret? In that interview she confirmed her unwillingness to make her marriage public when she said one’s “connection with somebody should be of heart and not a public spectacle” and that she was not connected with anybody who wanted to be spoken about. While introducing herself, she confessed she was a bit shy and liked to be on her own.

The way Goldie was brought up also explains her sense of individuality. She was the only child of her parents for five years before her younger sisters were born. Her parents did not allow her and sisters to keep friends outside the church. So she spent her time reading novels, but sometimes sneaking out to visit her friends. “I am a bit shy. It’s all due to my upbringing because when I was growing up, I didn’t like going out too often. So, I can say I was not an outgoing person.” Her strict Christian upbringing is perhaps also the reason she never liked kissing.

Did she see herself as a controversial person? “No, I don’t see myself as a controversial person. I think people tend to see me as controversial because I do different things; or maybe because of the character I do show in my video, people may have a different opinion. And also most of the controversies are spawned by copy-copy people who don’t really know me. A lot of people don’t really know me; they don’t know anything concrete about me. They just make a copy and spread it,”  Goldie said. And as a parting shot, she ended the interview by advising her fans not to copy anybody or follow anybody’s path.

— Nehru Odeh