I’m always devastated each time I watch Dagrin’s movies –Kenny St Best
Gospel singer, Kenny St. Best, tells ’NONYE BEN-NWANKWO why she changed her name and decided to get a divorce

My new image

A lot of people were present the day that I officially changed my name from Kenny St. Brown to Kenny St. Best. They didn’t understand what I was talking about. I knew the name was going to be larger than life. A lot of people may not know the difference between both names. Kenny St. Brown’s experience was devastating and it drowned whatever she had achieved and worked for. People didn’t believe in Kenny St. Brown anymore. They remembered the songs, but her image had been rubbished and it looked like anything that Kenny St. Best achieved didn’t matter. So, I had to switch to Kenny St. Brown or KSB for short, which is supposed to be a new, fresh, young, social and non religious personality. All I did was to inject fresh value to Kenny St. Brown through KSB. I didn’t see it coming. Nor did I plan it. But I recalled that when Whitney Houston died and she was a Mrs. Brown. I could compare her experiences to mine. But in her case, she wasn’t able to transform into a new personality. Hard drugs had kept her going. She wasn’t even in control of her mind. Something else dominated her mind and she started taking drugs. I’m not being self righteous, but my own drugs were the words I got from the Holy Bible. I could ingest it anytime and it kept me going. When Whitney died, I realised how much I had idolised her before I started ingesting the word of God as if it were narcotics. Even I became a Mrs. Brown, just like Whitney. And I wanted to be everything that she was. Whitney came on board when I was in the university and she was ruling the whole world. We are in the same age group. I wanted to be like her at all costs. But in the middle of my journey in life, God caught up with me. It was actually the Twitter fight that made me change my name to Kenny St. Best. A lot of people were angry with what I said on Twitter when Whitney died. I had compared my life with her hers. But my supporters on Twitter told me that if the name ‘Brown’ would get me into this kind of mess, I might as well stop bearing it. If it could affect Whitney the way it did, it might affect me too. So they asked me why I was still sticking to the name. Some people suggested that I should go back to Kenny St. Ogungbe. But I took it back to God and asked Him what I should do and He told me to drop it. I asked Him what name I should answer and He gave me ‘Best.’

Divorce

I had recovered my past before I changed my name to Kenny St. Best. But my life was moving at snail speed. Wait and see how much progress I will make as Kenny St. Best. I have a new personality. I have a new style and attitude. A lot of things were associated with the name Kenny St. Brown. People said she was a bad girl, a lesbian, and many other things. Sometimes, when I enter a hall and somebody wants to smile at me, the person would suddenly withdraw. But I am a fighter. I got separated from my husband about six years ago. I’m not divorced yet. I’m only separated from him. It is just recently that I decided to get a divorce. I didn’t consider it an issue before now. Right now, I have started the process of getting it. I am not with a man here. No man is living with me. It is not as if there is a new man in my life who is answering ‘Mr. Best.’ I am still myself. Yet, stories keep flying everywhere about me. I have ingested the word of God. It is good to study the word. Getting a divorce was not an issue. It didn’t matter to me.

Why I am not in a hurry to remarry

God has not told me that it is time to get married again. Instead, He told me that this is the time to add value to my life so that I can impact on other people’s lives. For now, He wants my work to be appreciated in the best way possible. When a marriage fails, it is a friendship that has failed. My advice to people is that they should not go into marriage and have a ‘my husband’ or ‘my wife’ kind of relationship in the marriage. It is best to have a ‘my friend’ kind of relationship. Let your wife or husband be your friend. Don’t be in a hurry to marry somebody after a few months of meeting him or her. You have to be that person’s friend first. If you don’t develop that kind of intimacy, he will be going to night clubs all the time.

Dagrin and I

I don’t watch Dagrin’s movie any longer. Each time I do, I am always devastated. He wanted to leave a lot of messages behind, but he couldn’t. However, he encouraged youths to follow their dreams. No matter what happens and how other people try to pull you down, stick to your dream. Let your passion pursue you. Being a thief or a fraudster is not a dream. Dagrin said he had lived all kinds of life, but wasn’t satisfied. Something kept urging him to follow his dream, which was music. When he was sure he was done with his duty, he told us not to cry when he was done. He knew he was going to die. It was against all odds for him. I love him. He is in my heart. I am more drawn to younger people now, musically. I picked that up from Dagrin.

Motivating other people

I am a natural counsellor. I counsel people with my songs, too. I inspire them. I am always thinking of how to put a smile on my neighbour’s face. I have conquered my world. I have conquered shame and I have conquered death. Death cannot come to me again. I must be willing to die before death will come to me. If you can survive a mess, people will get a message from that mess. I don’t write people off, I talk to them. Some people may not handle certain situations in their lives; so I try to accommodate them. That is why I am a youth coach. That is why I am a motivational speaker and that is why I am a singer.

How I overcame scandals

God saw me through every scandal and blackmail. I was an experiment of healing in His hands. I remember when the marriage of a certain female musician broke up. Somebody told her to come and see me. She wasn’t even my friend, but she came to me. She told me to help her get her mind and head back. God helped us and she moved on and she blew up. She is so massive now. I am supposed to be a bridge for somebody. God made me to survive. God gave me His words and the words became flesh and worked through me. I cannot boast that I did anything extra. When it was time to cry, I cried. When it was time to stand up, I stood up. When it looked as if I couldn’t stand and my legs wobbled, God sent some people to help me out. Many friends of mine were there for me. My mother and my siblings were there for me. Keke (Ogungbe), my brother, would call me and tell me to get up from where I was and dress up and go to an event so that people would see me. He told me if I wasn’t able to break off from scandal, I would find it difficult to break off from it and it would become my identity for the rest of my life. He encouraged me to dress well and go out with Essence all the time. He said people would say all kinds of things, but that we should face the shame now and break its power over us.

My relationship with Essence

In spite of the rumour that Essence was my lesbian partner, I still moved on with her. I’m still moving on with her. She lived in my house for awhile and only just moved out. We are still holding each other’s hands. When I’m weak, she is strong for me and when she is weak, I’m strong for her. People can’t understand how a girl can be a friend to another woman. You will not really blame such people because of what is happening in the world today. Essence is a girl that God gave me to mentor. I’m happy she is a blessing to the society rather than being a menace. She knew she wanted to do music and she found her mentor early and she held her. I found her as my protégé, somebody to mentor. I was with her all through. Now somebody out there decided to say that we are lesbians. It is pathetic. But we still overcame the scandal. God has blessed her. She is my pride and I can stand with her. She saw me go through a difficult period in my life. She is so strong now. There is nothing she cannot face. I have told her to pick somebody she can mentor so that the chain will continue.