Tekno
Award-winning Nigerian Afrobeats star Tekno has relived details of his troubling times when he nearly lost his voice and contemplated suicide.
Tekno while speaking in a recent podcast with Afrobeats Intelligence recalled the scariest and most difficult moment that necessitated him to undergo a 12-hour throat surgery in the US after losing his voice in 2018.
Narrating the story, Tekno said it started with a recurring sore throat for months and then graduated to painful episodes whenever he spoke. His vocal cords were inflamed for months and they took a final beating when he performed in Ghana oblivious to how bad his throat was. He stressed his voice so much during the show and it spiked his acid reflux which damaged his vocal cords.
Tekno sought medical assistance but ended up falling to a con doctor who would charge him a $1600 consultation fee every time he visited him for many months. Worse is that he would always tell him that he was recovering well while it wasn’t the case. So, the Abuja-born ‘Rara’ singer sought a second opinion from a specialist in the US and this was his biggest shocker yet.
His doctor, an American female doctor, Dr Damani quickly re-assessed him and told him surgery was the only option to save his voice. Tekno agreed to a specialized surgery where a magnet implant would be lodged in his voicing system other than stitching up his vocal cords. He chose the magnet implant surgery because it had a higher possibility of him recovering his voice fast unlike the latter which had a higher probability of ending his musical career by killing his vocal cords which will mean him losing his voice for life.
This surgery took 12 hours and many weeks to recover which left him depressed. Before his diagnosis, there were a lot of bookings which he had to refund because he couldn’t perform due to his condition. At the same time, he was footing huge bills in and out of the hospital. Tekno says that for seven months he couldn’t sing and this made him contemplate suicide because he was struggling mentally and financially.
The fact that he couldn’t sing and at the same time he was refunding hundreds of thousands of dollars for previously booked shows almost pushed him to commit suicide. “I was at a point where I am on the balcony and I’m like if I jump – I was like considering it,” he says.
However, some inner voice told him that he would sing once more and this gave him a little more strength to carry on. One thing that he credits to helping him deal with suicidal thoughts was extensive reading and the one Cameroon show that he was booked for which would pay him $110,000.
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