The Panti Personals S2 E8 - Xona

To close Season 2 of The Panti Personals we've a man that Panti Bliss can look up to, even while wearing high heels! It's 6 foot 7 Afro Irish soul singer and songwriter Xona - aka Jordan Onubogu. Xona was born in Lagos but calls Mullingar home, and has now made London his address. He tells the story of how he changed his name to his middle name Jordan, when he came as a ten year old, to Ireland, and started school.
Then, he wanted to fit in and to be the same as all the other children but today, as a confident Black Irish performing artist, he has returned to using his birth name. Xona shares with love the story of how his mother, a single mum, made sacrifices, and worked hard, to create a better life for her children in Ireland.
He talks of the challenges too of being the gay kid in a church based Nigerian Irish community and both Panti Bliss and Xona swap their 'coming out' stories.
Xona, accompanied by the gorgeous farmer/musician Colm Conlan, performs two of his songs live for the Queen - 'This Could Be Us' and 'Slow Dancing' both from his recent EP 'In My Head' and you hear the EP version of the title song during the show, when he shares his story of writing the album during the pandemic.

To find out more follow Xona on twitter twitter.com/xonatheartist

The Panti Personals is an independent podcast produced by Athena Media, made by Helen Shaw and John Howard with additional research by Dara Shaw.
Our theme music is Knots by Lisa Hannigan - used with her kind permission.
To find all the shows, and see videos of the performances, go to www.pantisocracy.ie