Music star, Augustine Kelechi, alias Tekno, has opened up about the stigmatisation he faced while battling severe vocal cord damage from acid reflux that led to his career decline.
Newsunplug recalls that Tekno, at the peak of his fame in 2018-2021, suffered severe vocal cord damage, during which he couldn’t sing and was forced into a multi-year hiatus, which disrupted his momentum.
Revisiting his ordeal in a recent interview with Cool FM Lagos, Tekno said during his struggle with vocal cord disease, he “hated” music and was only forcing himself to make music occasionally because of his recording deal yet the people around him labelled him “lazy” for slowing down the pace of his work.
He, however, admitted that he initially kept his ailment secret even from closed ones and team members.
He said this led to his team thinking he was being lazy about making music or performing during the period he was battling severe vocal cord damage.
The singer said, “Even the people closest to me were saying that ‘he is just lazy. He doesn’t want to perform..’. I was in a very dark place. Even after I recovered, I hated music. I didn’t want to hear music for a long time. I was only forcing myself to do music because I had a deal with Universal.”
Tekno said reading inspirational books made him healed emotionally and reconnected with music.