Easily one of Nigerian’s biggest female contemporary pop singers, Yemi Alade’s launch into stardom was pretty much providential. With the unprecedented but huge popularity of just one song, a massive following was recruited from the creeks of the Niger Delta all the way to nightclubs in Westlands, Nairobi. And the story behind the lyrics of that one song is so relatable; it could have been the story of the girl next door. A girl is looking for her John(ny). Flip that scenario into the mould of tradition and one is bound to remember the popular Dear John letter format for breaking off relations.
But instead of a somber mood, Yemi Alade tells an incongruous feisty and humorous tale of love-gone-sour for a philandering pathological liar who gifts every consensual confluence of thighs his wild oats. There was poetic justice for the same character in the video amid powerful acrobatic dance moves, all adding to the huge popularity of the Johnny song, including, of course, the French version which admittedly was equally popular in Francophone Africa.
On her debut King of Queens album(#KOQ), Ms Alade showcased her vocal possibilities trapping influences from everywhere: American TLC type Rhythm and Blues all the way to Nigerian Gospel prosody. No stone (or genre) is left unturned. And none should have been since she had the blessings and beats of innovative producers like Selebobo, GospelonDeBeatz and Fliptyce. There was a deliberate and laudable attempt to increase catchment area by doing hit or potential hit songs in French.
The truth about being an artist is that there is a constant struggle to stay afloat. The dynamics of staying popular, relevant and being true to one’s own appraisal of self requires intellectual ambidexterity and discipline. Whilst being in the limelight is an actualisation of dreams, it is also fraught with its own problems.
For Yemi Alade, her inroad to success was quite torturous. Of course, this is said with the caveat that being a female singer in Nigeria is an impossible uphill task. Her professional career began whilst she pursued a degree in Geography in the University of Lagos. After winning a Peak Talent Show in 2009, she quickened her way to stardom with a successful single, Fimisile, which featured El Dee. This song had similar patterns with Goldie’s You Know It, which also featured the same former Trybesman foreman.
This was followed by a slew of singles—Ghen Ghen Love, Bamboo, Show Me—all love songs of varying temperaments consigned with a singular responsibility of perpetuating her fame but it was not until Johnny that the real journey began.
In keeping with the new Nigerian music industry philosophy of finding a hit single on which to build a career upon, it took about a year before her first album King of Queens, best described as concerned with the matters of the heart, arrived.
About another year has passed; this period in Ms Alade’s diary is marked with the release of music videos that popularised her hair bun as well as a few new songs that tries to drive the same market with the same ingredients. Her most recent offering is Na Gode released in November, last year.
Na Gode cruises on a Shoki type beat featuring the vocals of its producer, Selebobo. It is seemingly a thanksgiving type song with a gospel frame but the ambiance of the thanksgiving is closer to a night club (where champagne and rose bottle corks could be popped) than a church. This was quickly followed with a Swahili version and a lavish video with Yemi Alade playing the characters of philanthropist and fierce diva back-to-back.
This follows the tradition of alternative language version of Johnny as well as Kissing, but begins her experimentation with Swahili, the dominant language spanning across East Africa. Yemi Alade’s strategy to perpetuating her stardom is dual-pronged and surprisingly simplistic.
On the one hand is to continue rendering songs that will thrive by being popular in tune, inflections and tendencies. On the other hand is to enlarge her audience by doing several versions of these songs in French, for Francophone Africa; in Swahili, for East Africa and, hopefully, one won’t be surprised if she does something in Portuguese for Lusophone Africa soon.
Songs, and every valuable work of art, once released into communal spaces, move away from their authors to begin a life of their own. Songs become popular and get covers. Some are sampled for their innovative value; in the process, they may cross languages like in the case of Adele’s latest hit song, Hello, covered by Dela in Kiswahili.
But for Yemi Alade, King of Queens, Johnny seeker, she resorts to perpetuating her messages in every language available to her whilst we wait for her sophomore album.
Image Credits: FashionpheevaEasily one of Nigerian’s biggest female contemporary pop singers, Yemi Alade’s launch into stardom was pretty much providential. With the unprecedented but huge popularity of just one song, a massive following was recruited from the creeks of the Niger Delta all the way to nightclubs in Westlands, Nairobi. And the story behind the lyrics of that one song is so relatable; it could have been the story of the girl next door. A girl is looking for her John(ny). Flip that scenario into the mould of tradition and one is bound to remember the popular Dear John letter format for breaking off relations.
But instead of a somber mood, Yemi Alade tells an incongruous feisty and humorous tale of love-gone-sour for a philandering pathological liar who gifts every consensual confluence of thighs his wild oats. There was poetic justice for the same character in the video amid powerful acrobatic dance moves, all adding to the huge popularity of the Johnny song, including, of course, the French version which admittedly was equally popular in Francophone Africa.
On her debut King of Queens album(#KOQ), Ms Alade showcased her vocal possibilities trapping influences from everywhere: American TLC type Rhythm and Blues all the way to Nigerian Gospel prosody. No stone (or genre) is left unturned. And none should have been since she had the blessings and beats of innovative producers like Selebobo, GospelonDeBeatz and Fliptyce. There was a deliberate and laudable attempt to increase catchment area by doing hit or potential hit songs in French.
The truth about being an artist is that there is a constant struggle to stay afloat. The dynamics of staying popular, relevant and being true to one’s own appraisal of self requires intellectual ambidexterity and discipline. Whilst being in the limelight is an actualisation of dreams, it is also fraught with its own problems.
For Yemi Alade, her inroad to success was quite torturous. Of course, this is said with the caveat that being a female singer in Nigeria is an impossible uphill task. Her professional career began whilst she pursued a degree in Geography in the University of Lagos. After winning a Peak Talent Show in 2009, she quickened her way to stardom with a successful single, Fimisile, which featured El Dee. This song had similar patterns with Goldie’s You Know It, which also featured the same former Trybesman foreman.
This was followed by a slew of singles—Ghen Ghen Love, Bamboo, Show Me—all love songs of varying temperaments consigned with a singular responsibility of perpetuating her fame but it was not until Johnny that the real journey began.
In keeping with the new Nigerian music industry philosophy of finding a hit single on which to build a career upon, it took about a year before her first album King of Queens, best described as concerned with the matters of the heart, arrived.
About another year has passed; this period in Ms Alade’s diary is marked with the release of music videos that popularised her hair bun as well as a few new songs that tries to drive the same market with the same ingredients. Her most recent offering is Na Gode released in November, last year.
Na Gode cruises on a Shoki type beat featuring the vocals of its producer, Selebobo. It is seemingly a thanksgiving type song with a gospel frame but the ambiance of the thanksgiving is closer to a night club (where champagne and rose bottle corks could be popped) than a church. This was quickly followed with a Swahili version and a lavish video with Yemi Alade playing the characters of philanthropist and fierce diva back-to-back.
This follows the tradition of alternative language version of Johnny as well as Kissing, but begins her experimentation with Swahili, the dominant language spanning across East Africa. Yemi Alade’s strategy to perpetuating her stardom is dual-pronged and surprisingly simplistic.
On the one hand is to continue rendering songs that will thrive by being popular in tune, inflections and tendencies. On the other hand is to enlarge her audience by doing several versions of these songs in French, for Francophone Africa; in Swahili, for East Africa and, hopefully, one won’t be surprised if she does something in Portuguese for Lusophone Africa soon.
Songs, and every valuable work of art, once released into communal spaces, move away from their authors to begin a life of their own. Songs become popular and get covers. Some are sampled for their innovative value; in the process, they may cross languages like in the case of Adele’s latest hit song, Hello, covered by Dela in Kiswahili.
But for Yemi Alade, King of Queens, Johnny seeker, she resorts to perpetuating her messages in every language available to her whilst we wait for her sophomore album.
Image Credits: Google
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