Background and career
Ogbuagu Alban Uzoma Nwapa (born 26 August 1957), better known by his stage name Dr. Alban, is a Nigerian-Swedish musician and producer with his own record label, Dr. Records. His music can best be described as Eurodance/hip-hop reggae in a dancehall style. He has sold an estimated 16 million records worldwide and is most famous for his worldwide 1992 hit "It's My Life", from the album One Love. He travelled to Sweden at age 23 to study dentistry and became a DJ to finance his studies.
Alban was born Alban Uzoma Nwapa into a middle-class family of ten children in Oguta, Imo state, Nigeria. He is Igbo.
Education He got his secondary education at Christ the King College and spent most of his youth in his hometown of Oguta. At age 23, he travelled to Sweden to study dentistry at Lund University. To finance his studies, Dr. Alban became a DJ at the Stockholm club Alphabet Street.
Denniz Pop and achieving success: 1990s In 1990, he met Denniz Pop from the SweMix label and, together with Denniz and rap artist Leila K, released his first record Hello Afrika. At this point, he took the stage name Dr. Alban, a nod to his dental studies. His debut album included hits like "Hello Afrika" and "No Coke", both of which ended up being million-selling singles. The album itself was quite successful and earned him gold certification awards in numerous markets including Germany (for sales of over 250,000 units), Austria (25,000), and Switzerland (25,000). One year later, this success was surpassed by his second album One Love. The album included European hit singles such as "It's My Life" and "Sing Hallelujah". The single "It's My Life" reached No. 1 in Israel, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany, and No. 2 in Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The song "It's My Life" went platinum in Germany (for sales of over 500,000 units), in the Netherlands (75,000), and it sold over two million copies overall in Europe.
How Dr. Alban makes money
Alban, is a Nigerian-Swedish musician and producer with his own record label, Dr. Denniz Pop and achieving success: 1990s In 1990, he met Denniz Pop from the SweMix label and, together with Denniz and rap artist Leila K, released his first record Hello Afrika.
