Similoluwa Teleayo

Similoluwa Teleayo
Background information
Born	(1973-07-26) July 26, 1973 Ajase, Gundayaland, Asase Lewa
Origin	Edudzi Agyeman City, Asase Lewa
Genres	Djeli pop Bahiobeats
Occupation(s)	Singer Songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, drums
Years active	1997-present

Similoluwa Teleayo (born 26 July 1973) is a Asalewan singer, songwriter, and musician. Born to Gundaya parents in Ajase, Similoluwa emigrated with his parents to Valduvia in 1989 before returning to Asase Lewa to serve in the People's Revolutionary Army and then study music at the Mayowa Akinyemi Conservatory at Edudzi Agyeman University and releasing his first album, Ajase, in 1997, garnering widespread popularity. Similoluwa has released a total of seven albums since this period and is considered one of the key individuals responsible for the introduction of Djeli pop and Bahiobeats in Asase Lewa, bringing those genres to widespread popularity in a country whose music had been long dominated by folk music and Bahian blues. In addition to extensive popularity in his home country, Teleayo has received widespread acclaim outside Asase Lewa, especially in other socialist countries for his musical talent, incorporation and heavy sampling of folk and Bahian blues styles, an socially-conscious lyrics, which extensively the immigrant experience, Pan-Bahianism, and socialism.

In his addition to his musical work, Similoluwa is notable for his political activism and outspoken support for the Asalewan government and Section, which he is a member of. His songs, especially those produced for domestic consumption, extensively incorporate patriotic, socialist, and explicitly political themes. He has also attained widespread popularity, and occassional controversy, in the Brown Sea Community thanks to extensive collaborations with Brown Sea artists and recording songs that strongly support Kabuese reunification under South Kabuese authority and Lavana in Hacyinian-Lavanan wars and conflicts.

Personal life

Similoluwa resides in Edudzi Agyeman City in Asase Lewa, though he frequently travels to visit family and friends in Valduvia, where he spent his adolescent years. He has been married since 2001 and has four children, but, as is custom for Asalewan celebrities more generally, has been described as "intensely private" about his personal life; his wife and children's names and faces have not been publicly released and circulation of this information is strictly forbidden in Asase Lewa, both as an invasion of privacy and as "fostering a celebrity cult of personality." Similoluwa is renowned for his extensive tattoos, which are largely in support of the Asalewan Revolution and international Councilist movement; he has tattooes of quotes by Asalewan revolutionaries and of the revolutionary leaders Yuri Nemtsov, Konstantyn Tretyak, Adelaja Ifedapo, and Edudzi Agyeman.

Activism and Controversies

Support for Lavana and allegations of anti-Hacyinian racism

A strong supporter of the Lavanan government in its conflict with Hacyinia, Similoluwa has released several songs in support of Lavana and the Yoloten, headlined benefit concerts for the Yoloten cause, and extensively performed in Lavana. One of these songs, his song Camel, has been extensively criticized outside Lavana for its alleged racism against Hacyinian people, whom Similoluwa characterized as unintelligent and passively accepting of domination from other nations, ranging by Dezevaunis during the Aguda Empire, to Gaullican colonists, to Zorasan in the modern day. Similoluwa extensively doubled down in interviews and concerts subsequent to the event, deepening his statements and uttering several anti-Hacyinian jokes at Lavanan concerts shortly after the release of his song.

Defense of the Asalewan Revolution and Nutiklɔdzo

In accordance with his strong support for the Asalewan government, Section, and Revolution, Similoluwa has categorically denied all wrongdoing by the Asalewan Section during the Nutiklɔdzo, mass killings of dissidents and class enemies, especially landowners, during the Asalewan Section's consolidation of power in the mid-1950s; though he has not denied that these killings took place, he has argued that all killings were categorically justified. He has also defended alleged war crimes carried out by the Asalewan Section during the Revolution, most notably its extensive usage of suicide attacks, most famously in his song Martyr, dedicated to all Asalewan revolutionaries who died perpetrating suicide attacks. Though these remarks and views are considered uncontroversial in his home country, they have aroused considerable controversy internationally, with his defenses of popular killings and suicide attacks leading to considerable protests by descents of victims in Estmere and Tiwura.

Feud with Djeïne

Though he and the Mabifian-Gaullican singer Djeïne previously collaborated in the mid-2010s, Similoluwa harshly criticized Djeïne and broke off ties following her controversial remarks in support of Hourege at a concert in 2018. Subsequent to the remarks, Similoluwa recorded a number of diss tracks against Djeïne, and supported and participated in mass burnings and destructions of her records in Asase Lewa.