Yemi Alade opens up on why she skipped stage names like “Electra” and “Ginger” and chose to keep her birth name instead. Here’s the story behind it.
You know how a lot of musicians love to reinvent themselves with a flashy stage name? Yemi Alade almost did that too. Turns out she had a couple of names picked out before she settled on the one we all know her by, and honestly, the story behind it is way more interesting than you’d expect.
In a recent chat with the BBC, Yemi Alade let fans in on something she’d been sitting on for years. Before she became “Yemi Alade” to the world, she seriously considered going by “Electra.” Sounds cool, right? But she scrapped it because she felt it gave too much away. She said the name would make people expect her to walk in “electrifying,” and that’s not the kind of first impression she wanted to control.
Then there was “Ginger.” In Nigeria, that word basically means energy or hype. Same problem again, she felt like it was announcing her personality before anyone even met her. She wanted a bit of mystery, not a walking headline.
So what changed her mind? She says she took the whole decision to God. And what came back to her was simple: stick with the name you were born with, because it already says everything.
“Opeyemi means ‘thanks be to God,’ and Alade means ‘the one who holds the crown,'” she explained. “I feel like that embodies who I am, so I held on to it.”
Honestly, that’s a pretty powerful reason to keep a name. It’s not just identity, it’s a whole statement of purpose.
Alade also talked about why she started singing in French, Swahili, and Portuguese, on top of English and her native tongues. She said it all started when she noticed French-speaking fans singing along to her songs at concerts, word for word, even though they didn’t understand a lick of English. That moved her enough to want to sing back to them in their own language, as a kind of thank you.
She didn’t stop at French. Swahili and Portuguese followed soon after.
Alade also touched on how things have shifted for female artistes. According to her, it’s not exactly easier now, but people are more accepting than before. Her take? Women need to keep showing up in bigger numbers until there’s no denying the space they deserve.
