Biography
Posted by Desiree
I was born Chinelo Desiree Banugo and due to mispronouncations by other non-Nigerians, my parents decided when I was a baby that I would be more commonly known as Desiree, just ONE of my middle names. I’m a first generation Brit with my younger brother Pele, born to a Nigerian father and Trinidadian mother. I’m also known as a Trinigerian!
Born and raised in South London, I still live here, very close to the Thames river which I love. I try to make daily walks to the embankment to watch planes, helicopters, urban wildlife in the water, to exercise and to meditate.
When I was at school, I was involved in everything related to music: choirs, orchestras, drama groups, performing groups. In terms of sports, I played basketball for the school team and was entered for track and field events at the county games and loved playing badminton. Academically, I was also known as the school swot with the highest GPA in the school for four out of five years hovering around the 3.7 mark. Chemistry, Biology, Maths and English were my favourite subjects.
After graduating in 1994 with a Bachelors of Engineering with Honours degree in Chemical Engineering, I entered the world of work with the aim of securing a career that would be accompanied by a lifestyle involving travel, meeting people and creative environments with a decent package. My experiences of working in the restaurant, oil, retail, insurance, engineering and civil service sectors prepared me well for my introduction to the advertising and marketing industry.
Since 1997, I have worked both agency and client side serving individuals, artists and small businesses up to global conglomerates on marketing communication campaigns for national, European and International markets. I’ve worked in top 3 UK agencies and worked on popular household brands such as SonyPlaystation, World Rally Championships, British Telecom and IBM. Throughout my career I have been responsible for strategically developing and executing mailing, email, radio, events, experiential, public relations, internet and social media campaigns
In 2001, I launched my own freelance service under the company name of Black Rock Enterprises Ltd having the pleasure of working with clients such as Yahoo!, Vodafone, Napster, British Film Institute, Jaguar Cars and L’Oreal. Currently I provide digital marketing strategies to UK hip-hop artist Paul Samuels and boutique London PR consultancy, ING Media.
Music career – well I don’t have a professional one. However it has always been one of my passions. I started performing at the age of 5 and had my first TV appearance on a BBC schools music programme at the age of 8. I learned to play the cello, recorder, guitar, trumpet and violin – playing the cello regularly in the school orchestra and 2nd trumpet in the London SDA Brass Band for approximately 4 years.
But truly my first love is singing. Naturally a 2nd soprano, I have (I think) a 3 and a half octave range, can sight read (am little rusty right now) and was involved in vocal production for a few gospel groups. I’ve been blessed to perform at the Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, performed songs with up to 16 part harmonies, performed at family and friend’s events, ran a small record label and am currently attending the Big Mouth Music Workshop run by the beautiful and very talented Susan Harriott, an old friend.
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