Austine Emmanuel best known as Austine De Bull is a Nigerian gospel singer and songwriter who came to prominence for his single “Shey You Dey Whine Me Ni” which went viral on the video-sharing platform TikTok. The song title is a slang used by Nigerians to ask ‘if you are being lied to or flattered in Pidgin’ ( “Are you kidding me?” or “Are you for real”).
Early Life and Career
Austine De Bull was born Austine Emmanuel in Nigeria. He hails from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. He is very fluent in the Kana language of Ogboni land.
Austine Emmanuel, aka Austine De Bull, was relatively unknown, at least not outside the shores of Ogoniland, River State. Not until luck shone on him and the video of his debut single, ‘Shey You Dey Whine Me Ni‘ went viral on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
You can also read similar artist biography like Tems and how she became popular in a similar way.
That was all it took for the drummer-turned-musician to get his big break in the 12th year of his music career.
The viral hit was accompanied by a music video that brings up memories of Nigerian indigenous gospel singer Agnes Iro’s ‘Ladder Ladder’ (follow the ladder to heaven) song.
After the upload on streaming channels on 28th October 2022, Nigerians on social media realized that the viral track ‘Shey you dey whine me ni’ is a gospel song.
Speaking in an interview with The Nation, the drummer-turned-singer who is from Ogoni in Rivers state, recalled how he was discouraged from singing by friends and neighbors.
Austine further revealed that he was pushed to the point of believing that they didn’t want him to worship God. The trending singer said;
“As a drummer that had no idea or connection with singing, when the call came in 2020 to be a singer it was difficult to me myself because I never know how I will start because I have not done it before I had to discuss with some of my friends about the call to be a singer and they were laughing at me that this one I am a drummer and not a singer I won’t be able to do it so it was somehow to me, so I had to discuss with other neighbors who were still laughing at me so it was somehow because nobody believed in me, they were discouraging me so I was like ‘so they don’t want me to worship God shey Una dey whine me ni’ so that’s where the inspiration came so that’s the inspiration”.
Shey you dey whine me ni Meaning
Austine de Bull added that his hit single, ’Shey you dey whine me ni’ is a Christian song with a mixture of street slang and a local dialect.
He said;
“Yes, it is a Christian song but it is a mixture of a street slang and local dialect which is the Ogoni dialect, it means in English ‘who say make I no praise God shey you dey whine me ni’ and in Ogoni “Mena kon ma le da badi Shey you dey whine mi?”.
On how his song went viral, Austine said;
“The calling came in 2020 but I never paid attention to it so when it keep coming around until 2022 this year I decided to pay attention to it that’s how it started that I came up with the song. During the video shoot, I did some behind the scenes with my phone camera so I posted it on my TikTok page just to create awareness that something big was coming though I never had any audience it was some people I had on my Tiktok that started posting and that’s how it blew up.”
Wife
De Bull Emmanuel is currently single and not in any relationship for now. De Bull Emmanuel is also not married.
Net Worth
De Bull Emmanuel’s net worth as of 2022 is estimated at around $30, 000 – $250, 000.
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