Sinach: Biography and Net Worth of Nigeria’s Top Gospel Artist

Sinach (born 30 March 1973) is a 50 years old Nigerian singer-songwriter and senior worship leader at Loveworld International who has a net worth of $500,000. The singer reached the world stage with the release of her hit song Way Maker which became the most-played song in churches across the United States in 2020.

Blessed with a velvety smooth voice that has been described as ‘angelic’, Sinach is hailed as one of the most successful Nigerian gospel singers. She is also known internationally for several gospel hits that have topped different charts. She is the first singer-songwriter to top the Billboard Christian Songwriter chart for 12 weeks. Without a doubt, Sinach has established herself as a global star in worship and gospel songs. 

Profile Summary Of Sinach

  • Full Name: Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu
  • Date of Birth: 30 March 1973
  • Sinach’s Age: 50 Years Old
  • Zodiac Sign: Aries
  • Place of Birth: Ebonyi State, Nigeria
  • Ethnicity: Igbo
  • State of Origin: Ebonyi State
  • Nationality: Nigerian
  • Education: University of Port Harcourt
  • Religion: Christian
  • Sexual Orientation: Straight
  • Marital Status: Married
  • Sinach’s Husband: Joe Egbu
  • Sinach’s Children: 1 – Rachael Sonia Rhoda Chigozirim Egbu
  • Profession: Singer, Songwriter, Worship Leader
  • Sinach’s Net Worth: $500,000
  • Sinach’s Height in Inches: 5 ft 5 Inches
  • Sinach’s Weight: 65kg
  • Instagram: @therealsinach
  • Twitter: @sinach

Sinach Hails From The Southeastern Part Of Nigeria

Sinach, whose real name is actually Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu, was born on the 30th of May 1973 and is now 50 years old. The world-famous singer was born in Ebonyi State, one of the states in southeastern Nigeria. It was also here that she spent her early days growing up with her family. The singer of Igbo descent.

Sinach comes from a large family. As a matter of fact, she is one of 7 children who were born to her parents. It is noteworthy that she is the second daughter of her parents. The identities of her parents have remained hidden. Also, her siblings, who are not as popular as her, have remained unknown to the general public.

She Studied Physics

It is not clear where Sinach had her elementary and high school education, however, we know that she attended the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, where she studied Physics. While in college, Sinach had already developed a great love for singing and sang whenever she got the opportunity, especially while in church.

According to Sinach, it was also in the university that she became a born-again Christian. She made this revelation during an interview with Pulse Nigeria. According to her, she was walking around during her first year in university when she was invited to a particular church and she went. By the time she got there, she heard people singing so beautifully and it completely gripped her at once. The music plus the captivating message she heard from the pastor made her jump to the front to accept the altar call and she became born again at the end of the service. After the encounter, her whole life changed.

Sinach Started Singing Just For Fun

For Sinach, the singing began as something she just did for fun when she was very little. She found out she just loved to sing and her family took note of her lovely voice. Eventually, she joined her church choir in 1989 when she was about 16 years old. The choir she joined was in Christ Embassy, a church founded by popular Nigerian cleric, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome.

While she was working as a staff and choir member in Christ Embassy, Sinach made it a habit to perform for her family and friends. It was natural for her to do this because singing had become the one thing she enjoyed doing the most and everyone who knew her at the time understood this. However, even though she loved to sing and everyone knew she loved to sing, Sinach didn’t really consider singing professionally or making a career out of it. All she wanted to do at the time was just sing for fun and entertain family and friends.

Sinach also once revealed that as a child, she often had dreams in which she saw herself singing to large crowds who were highly entertained by what she was doing. But, even with that, she didn’t actively pursue anything musically as a career except for joining the choir and also working in Christ Embassy as an administrative staff in the church.

Sinach Wrote Her First Song At 19

Years after joining the choir, when she was about 19 years old, Sinach eventually wrote her very first song. She made this revelation during a chat with BBC News Africa. According to Sinach, she was in church one day, listening to the pastor preach. Suddenly, she was struck by some of the things the pastor was saying. His words struck her so hard that she turned them into a song by writing them down on her jotter and rearranging them into lyrics.

When she finished writing the song, she showed it to the other choristers and taught them how to sing it. The other choir members loved the song and hailed for her a job well done. When the song was eventually sung to the church, it was well-received. It was so well received that the song became a piece people always sang in the church. Sinach was really elated with the great reception the song got and this encouraged her to write more songs as time went on.

Just like she did when she wrote her first song, Sinach continued listening to her pastor to get more inspiration to help her write her songs well. Even today, she gets most of her inspiration when she listens to her pastor preaching in church.

Sinach
Sinach on stage

Sinach Released Her First Album At The Age Of 35

After writing her first song, Sinach soon began to write other songs which were sung by the choir at Christ Embassy. She rose to become one of the very popular faces in the church as she was always leading worship before the pastor came forth for ministration. Sinach wrote many songs that were sung in church and also followed her pastor, Chris Oyakhilome on his many crusades around the world. Still, Sinach did not try to make singing a professional career choice until much later.

Finally, in the year, 2000, Sinach realized that she could actually make a great career from being a professional musician. This realization dawned on her after she kept on getting very huge applause whenever she sang during crusades organized by Pastor Oyakhilome’s Christ Embassy. The reception she always got whenever she sang was so overwhelming that she knew that if she began singing professionally and releasing albums, she could reach more people and touch more lives.

After this realization, Sinach began to record her music. She recorded a lot of songs but did not put them out professionally at first. In fact, during her interview with Pulse Nigeria, Sinach revealed that she actually record an entire album in 2001 and sold about 10,000 copies in a single day but discontinued sales for some reason. According to her, she also recorded two more albums that never saw the light of day. Eventually, she released the album that is now known as her debut album in 2008 when she was about 35 years old.

‘Chapter One’ Launched Her To Stardom

In 2008, at about 35 years old, Sinach released her debut album called ‘Chapter One’. By this time, the singer had already become a consummate stage performer who performed on several stages at several church crusades and conferences. So, she was already known to many people. But the release of her album launched her to even greater popularity.

‘Chapter One’ contained several hit songs, including Awesome God, Because You Love, The Presence of the Lord and This Is Your Season among others. In fact, her song ‘This Is Your Season’ became really massive around Nigeria and beyond. It eventually won the Song of the Year award in 2008, establishing Sinach among the top gospel music stars in Nigeria.

How Pastor Chris Oyakhilome Helped To Build Her Confidence

Sinach has always been full of praise for renowned Nigerian cleric, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome. This is because he has been her mentor from the beginning and it is because of him that she was able to find her footing as a gospel singer. According to her, pastor Chris first took notice of her when he heard her sing in the choir and later reached out to her to encourage her to keep singing. He also told her that she had a huge gift inside of her and she had to explore and bring it to life.

As time went on, Sinach became one of the popular choristers at Christ Embassy as she was one of the worship leaders whose voice always got people captivated. During this time, Pastor Oyakhilome began to take her and other choristers to different crusades for ministration. Subsequently, Sinach developed great confidence in her abilities as a singer. When she began to sing professionally, performing in front of huge Christ Embassy audiences helped to build her fan base. Ultimately, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome played a very huge role in her rise to prominence as a gospel music star.

How She Got Her Stage Name

Born Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu, the singer knew that she needed a stage name when she started making music professionally. She also realized that she needed a stage name that people can connect with easily. So, she decided to choose Sinach. Speaking on how she came by her stage name the singer said she picked it out of her name Osinachi.

She felt that people may find it hard to fully pronounce Osinachi, but might find Sinach easier to say. According to her, she chose the name because, apart from being easy to pronounce, it is also catchy.

Sinach Has Released More Than 10 Albums

As of 2021, Sinach had recorded and released as many as 12 albums since her career started. After putting out her first album, ‘Chapter One’ in 2008, she released her second album titled ‘I’m Blessed’ in 2010. ‘I’m Blessed’ made a lot of waves as well with several hit songs such as ‘Born To Win’ and ‘Never Late’.

In 2011, Sinach released her third album titled ‘From Glory to Glory’. She followed it up with her 4th album titled ‘Shout It Loud’ in 2012. The lead single from the album and other singles like ‘Victory’ and ‘You Are a Wonder’ got massive acceptance among many Christians. In 2013, Sinach released her 5th album titled ‘Sinach at Christmas. Some singles from this album, including ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’ and ‘Oh Holy Night’ caused some stir.

Sinach released her sixth album in 2014 and titled it ‘The Name of Jesus’. The album became one of the biggest projects in the gospel music arena in Nigeria that year. Singles like ‘Great Are You Lord’ and ‘Nothing Is Impossible’ became very popular among many Christians.

‘Way Maker’ Took Sinach’s Popularity To Another Level

In 2016, Sinach released her 7th album titled ‘Way Maker’. The 18-track album turned out to be one of her greatest body of works ever. The lead single from the album also titled ‘Way Maker’ achieved huge global success that stunned Sinach herself. The song was certified gold by the Recording Industry of South Africa and has been covered by different highly acclaimed gospel musicians all over the world, including Michael W. Smith, Darlene Zschech, Mandisa, and others.

The popularity of ‘Way Maker’ kept increasing everyday and in October 2020, it won the Dove Award for Song of the Year at the 51st GMA Dove Awards in the United States. This feat made Sinach the first Nigerian gospel artist to ever win the award. The song has also garnered a lot of views on music streaming platforms. On YouTube alone, the video of the song had raked in an amazing 100 million views by March 2019, making Sinach the first Nigerian gospel singer and third Nigerian singer overall to accomplish the feat. Today, it has more than 180 million views making Sinach one of the most viewed Nigerian songs on YouTube.

The song propelled Sinach to become the first African artist to top the Billboard Christian Songwriters chart in May 2020. Also, in 2016, the year she released the song, Sinach became the first recipient of the LIMA Songwriter of the Decade Award in recognition of her contribution to gospel music in the previous decade. ‘Way Maker’ also reached the top spot in the Christian Copyright Licensing International Top 100 songs in June 2020. Apparently, even though Sinach was already a huge gospel music star, ‘Way Maker made her even more globally acclaimed.

In 2018, Sinach released her 8th album titled ‘There’s an Overflow’ and followed it up with her 9th album ‘Great God – Live in London’ in 2019. In 2020, the singer released two albums; ‘Acoustics – Volume 1’  and ‘Acoustics – Volume 2’. The next year in 2021, she released her 12th album titled ‘Greatest Lord’.

Sinach
Sinach in action

A Recap Of Sinach’s Albums

Below is a list of all the albums Sinach has released so far

  • ‘Chapter One’ was released in 2008
  • ‘I’m Blessed’ was released in 2010
  • ‘From Glory to Glory’ was released in 2011
  • ‘Shout it Loud’ was released in 2012
  • ‘Sinach at Christmas’ was released in 2013
  • ‘The Name of Jesus’ was released in 2014
  • ‘Way Maker’ was released in 2016
  • ‘There’s an Overflow’ was released in 2018
  • ‘Great God – Live in London’ was released on 2019
  • ‘Acoustics – Volume 1’ was released in 2020
  • ‘Acoustics – Volume 2’ was released in 2020
  • ‘Greatest Lord’ was released in 2021

Sinach Is The Recipient Of Many Awards

As expected, Sinach has won several awards for her work. Considering how huge she has become as a global music star, this does not come as a surprise at all. Below are some of the awards she has won in her illustrious career so far.

  • In 2016, she emerged winner of the LIMA Songwriter of the Decade Award
  • Also in 2016, she won the Groove Awards for Western Africa Artist of the Year
  • Again in 2016, she was the winner of the African Achievers’ Award for Global Excellence
  • In 2017, she was named the Best International Artiste of the year at the Sterling Gospel Music Awards
  • Also, in 2017, she won the Nigerian Entertainment Award for Inspirational Artist
  • In 2019, she was named winner of the LIMA Song of the Year
  • Also, in 2019, she was named as the No.1 female artiste of the decade by Pulse Nigeria
  • In 2020, she won the GMA Dove Award for Song of the Year
  • Also in 2020, Sinach was named among Africa’s Most Influential Women
  • Again, in 2020, Integrity Music announced that Sinach had been named the Top Christian Songwriter for twelve weeks in a row.
  • In 2021, Sinach became the very first African gospel music artist to win the Song of the Year at Broadcast Music, Inc., (BMI).

Sinach Is One Of The Richest Nigerian Gospel Singers

Sinach has not only been making music and making people happy, but she has also been making money in the process. This is expected, considering how much she has contributed to the exponential growth of gospel music in Nigeria and how insanely popular she has become in the process.

At the moment, Sinach’s net worth is estimated to be about $500,000. This makes her one of the wealthiest women in the gospel music genre and one of the richest gospel music singers overall in Nigeria.

How Sinach Rakes In Her Money

Sinach makes a lot of money in different ways but most importantly, she makes money via the sales of her albums. Since her career started, Sinach has sold hundreds of thousands of album copies around Nigeria, Africa, and the rest of the world. The singer herself revealed that even before she released her first official single, she sold about 10,000 copies of a musical project in 2001. Sinach has always possessed a selling power in her.

Apart from album sales, Sinach rakes in a lot of money from online streaming platforms. The singer has large streaming numbers from all the platforms her songs are on. For instance, on YouTube alone, Sinach has raked in millions of views. Her song, ‘Way Maker’ alone currently has more than 180 million views. Combined with her other songs, Sinach has raked in almost 600 million views. Sinach is also on Spotify and is big on the platform. In fact, in 2018, Spotify released a list of the Top 50 Greatest Nigerian Songs on the platform and nearly 20 of Sinach’s songs were on the list. This proved without a doubt that she was one of the most-streamed Nigerian gospel singers on Spotify and this also means that she smiles to the bank every now and then with money gained from the platform. Sinach is on other streaming platforms as well.

Apart from her album sales and streaming numbers, Sinach is known to love performing. In fact, before she began doing music professionally, stage performance was all she did. After turning pro, Sinach has performed in hundreds of events and churches around the world. Every year, she tours the globe to perform before thousands of people across dozens of nations and cities. As a matter of fact, she has performed and headlined concerts in over 50 countries around the world. One of the many benefits of going all over the world and performing is that Sinach ultimately gets rewarded monetarily after the performances. Considering how many times she travels yearly to perform across the world, it is safe that this is one of the biggest money-spinners.

Where Does Sinach Rank Among Nigeria’s Richest Gospel Musicians?

Sinach is a wealthy gospel musician but is she the richest Nigerian gospel singer at the moment? The very short answer is no! Although Sinach has raked in quite a lot of money over the years as a singer who has become globally acclaimed, she is still not the wealthiest person in the Nigerian gospel music arena. So where does she rank in the scheme of things?

At the moment, legendary Nigerian gospel singers like Sammie Okposo, Yinka Ayefele, and Frank Edwards have all been ranked above Sinach in the wealth department. Sammie Okposo is reported to be worth about $750,000 while Yinka Ayefele is reported to be worth about $650,000. Also, Frank Edwards is reported to be worth an amazing $600,000, placing them all above the Way Maker singer. Sinach is ranked 4th with $500,000. It is expected that as time goes on and as she keeps on making exploits, this figure will change.

 

Daniel Samuel
Daniel Samuel
With several years of experience dedicated to writing quality pieces through research-backed facts & figures combined with brilliant visuals & stories that entertain any audience - my mission is always clear – provide readers value through thoughtfully crafted sentences and paragraphs

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