For Saint Janet A Generational Maestro Who Refused to be Boxed

Janet Iyun Ajilore, aka “Saint Janet”, “Queen of Yabis.” aka “Overseer of Sinner’s Chapel”, aka “ General Overseer of St Bottles Cathedral”, is dead after a brief illness. For the fans of the singer, famously known for her ribaldry, and her lewd reinterpretations of classic folk songs and gospel songs, who ruled the airwaves in the late 2000s to the 2010s, it is not the kind of exit they would have wished for, but it was a life well lived nonetheless.

One interesting thing that has happened in the immediate aftermath of her passing is how she has been described. Some have called her a highlife singer, some, a juju musician (perhaps due to the fact she cut her teeth as a session artiste, in Los Kenge a Juju Music Band based in Abeokuta, Nigeria), yet one of her most memorable performances, was at the Ibadan Fuji Festival, organized by my friend, Danjuma Balogun, a project I had the opportunity to manage online communications for in 2024. Ibadan Fuji Festival was a celebration for Fuji, but St Janet was at home as much as any of the Fuji artistes who performed there. There is even a hint of a gospel singer somewhere in there (she started singing in the choir of in the Cherubim and Seraphim Church choir), after all it takes a true master to subvert an art form enough to make the subversion even as popular as the original.

That genre fluidity and genre bending is not a minus, it and her unapologetically lewd lyrics and wittily ribald double entendres, are a sign of a true creative, who defined her art in her own terms, and a true performer with a live stage presence that would keep her audience spellbound and engaged regardless of who they were or what genre of music they favored. That is why unlike many of her contemporaries, her music held the same spell across generations. The children and niblings of the generation who played her songs on CDs and DVD players, grew up into the generation that streamed them on Apple and Spotify. Because like a real-life church, “Sinners Chapel” continues to be in service because it has something for everybody. “St Bottles Cathedral” is always open to anyone regardless of age, gender or social status.

However, even though her music earned her a cult following, it didn’t always translate into a mainstream acceptance. She faced censorship for her explicit lyrics, with most of her songs still banned from the airwaves today. Professional bodies like the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, and the Music Advertisers Association of Nigeria blacklisted her at the height of her popularity, even the Lagos State House of Assembly adopted a motion to ban her Faaji plus from public airwaves in 2010. Until her passing, she remained a persona non-grata, to regulators and music professionals. At a period when radio and TV were the lifeblood of a Nigerian artist, St Janet swam up a waterfall of a conservative society, with one hand tied to her back, yet she emerges, not unscathed, but victorious and vindicated. Like the church of Jesus Christ, Sinners Chapel survived the machinations determined to bring it down, and will still continue to attract “sinners” even after the passing of its general overseer. Ironically like Nicodemus, who was a member of the Sanhedrin who openly despised Jesus, yet who went in the night to seek counsel from him, the same people who screamed for Saint Janet to be “banned from everything!” were also the same people who were her patrons and invited her to parties.

What is also ironic is that, like the patient rejecting life saving medicine because “it is too bitter,” the traditional folk music industry did not realize it at the time, but the subversion St Janet was what it needed to survive. The “Queen of Yabis” rose to superstardom around the same time Afrobeats, now Africa’s most popular music genre, started to become a real force. The juju musicians who had ruled the roost from the 70s to the 90s were aging, the Fuji musicians who had been the kings in the 90s to the 2000s were running out of creative juice. Traditional folk music needed a statement, and St Janet like the Avatar, “Mistress” of all four elements stepped up a raw, unapologetic, witty and ultimately earthshaking statement, that even though hasn’t changed the result of the race, but it allowed traditional Yoruba music to hold out for a few more moments.

But traditional Yoruba music was not the only one that listened, even Afrobeats, on its way to African music domination and global relevance, stopped by at St Bottles Cathedral, bought more than a few bottles, and took sermon notes from the General Overseer. For example, Qdot Alagbe enjoys a considerable following in Afrobeats (or “Afro-Adura as the witty music connoisseurs on X like to call it), his music is replete with obvious St Janet homages, Same for Niniola. Even for those not brave enough to reference her directly, St Janet has ensured that the “female performer who displays her sexuality unapologetically” figure has gone from being openly despised, to being tolerated, even being grudgingly accepted. As Tomide Marv put it in his commentary on her for Zikoko Magazine , the likes of Tems and Ayra star becoming the poster girls for sensuality in Nigerian music has some St Janet in it. Unfortunately, like Moses, who saw the promised land but never entered it, the Queen of Yabis’s career didn’t benefit for the revolution that she helped to birth.

Must music commentators and detractors have a tendency to dismiss Saint Janet as a subversive who just sang “vulgar” and lewd lyrics for shock value, or for attention. This cannot be any further from the truth. Her “Yabis” has contained social commentary and even social satire and didacticism. In the “Olori Ebi” live play session for example she lampoons men who lose their inhibitions and self of self-preservation and ultimately end up in trouble because of sex. In the same songs, she warns parents who indulge in bad habits against being bad examples for their children, as children end up acquiring even worse versions of the vices that they see their parents indulge in.

What is perhaps most intriguing about Saint Janet is that for someone who was the poster girl for unabashed vulgarity and sexuality, her own personal life was surprisingly private, it could have been due the years of persecution by the music mainstream, but her private life was so private to the point of obscurity. No scandals of note, she rarely did interviews nor was she in the news for anything major. Few people know she was married to Kayode Iyun, and had children. The only scandal of hers that made the news was her separation from her husband around 2012, but even that did not become a major headline. St Janet remained a woman you could pass on the street and not think she is noteworthy in anyway, until she grabs a microphone. In fact, those who have documented her career said that her band leader at Los Kenge, reportedly said that “Janet is someone that looks like a saint, until she starts performing.” And that was how she acquired the “Saint” in her moniker.

So, rest on Saint Janet. St Bottles Cathedral will never be the same without its G.O, and Sinners Chapel will never be the same without its Founder. We know you will never get the national celebration you deserve because Nigeria is still a conservative society, but we the congregation of St Bottles cathedral, do solemnly swear that we shall always stop by and grab a bottle – or several in remembrance of one of one of the best to ever do it. So help us God.