Abimbola ‘Bim’ Fernandez shares a dream with millions of young and attractive women; she wants to become a singing sensation like her idol, in her case Rihanna. However, her motivation is probably somewhat different to her peers, for Bim has no need to become rich and live a lavish lifestyle – she already is and does!
Bim is the 24-year-old daughter of Nigerian billionaire Antonio Deinde Fernandez, who is worth a staggering $8.7 billion, definitely one of the richest men in the world. She lives in an ultra-plush, Picasso-lined New York apartment and, with a gold and gem tycoon for a dad, she is probably not short of a few sparkly accoutrements.
Her first single ‘Let’s Take It Naked’ was released this week on SMH Records’ site, with an iTunes roll-out expected soon. A song about nakedness is perhaps a little more explicit than what one would expect from a well-heeled socialite, but Miss Fernandez says that it’s not even that racy of a song! She says: “It’s very poppy, like, ‘I think you’re cute! Do you like me? So let’s get naked!’ I want it to be that song where it’s like, ‘Turn that song on! Let’s get ready! Let’s do shots!'”
In November, she signed her record deal with SMH and is now topping off negotiations for her reality TV pilot called Gold Blooded to be picked up by a major network. Her only prior professional music experience was a vocal cameo in Cobra Starship’s 2009 album Hot Mess – a feature she booked after meeting the band’s lead singer Gabe Saporta backstage at a show. Her record label says that Bim has not put any of her own money into the music project. In fact, she appears to be more down to earth than one would expect. She told the New York Post that she grew up not knowing how rich she was. “Money can’t buy a record deal,” she said of her situation. “It can’t buy good music. You can either sing or you can’t.”
She attended college at Oxford Brookes University in England for just a few weeks before dropping out because, she says, “everyone was way too snobby – I couldn’t do it.”
