Yemi Alade almost introduced herself to the world by a completely different name.
Before becoming one of Africa’s biggest music stars, the Nigerian singer explored several stage names, hoping to find one that matched her artistic vision.
The search, however, left her with one concern: she did not want her name to tell people who she was before they had even heard her music.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC, Alade said one of the names she seriously considered was “Electra.”
One of the names that I had played with in my early days was Electra, but I changed my mind because I felt that the minute you hear Electra, you already expect me to be electrifying, and I didn’t want people to see me coming or overexpect.
That realization pushed her back to the drawing board.
She then considered another stage name, “Ginger,” but quickly concluded that it created the same problem by revealing too much about her personality before fans had the chance to discover her themselves.
I wanted them not to know what’s coming, and then I tried another name, Ginger, but the problem is, in Nigeria, when you say ginger, it means energy, and I’m just telling everybody who I am before they meet me.
Instead of settling for another name, Alade decided to stop searching altogether.
She said she prayed for direction and soon found herself looking at her birth name in a completely different way.
I had a moment where I just sat on the idea, and I honestly just reached out to God and just asked, ‘Please lead me,’ and the reckoning that came to me was that I needed to stick to my birth name because it had a huge meaning behind it.
For Alade, the decision became even clearer after she reflected on what her names represent.
Opeyemi means ‘thanks be to God,’ and Alade means ‘the one who holds the crown.’ I feel like that embodies who I am, so I held on to it.
Years later, the decision has paid off.
Rather than building her career around a manufactured stage persona, Yemi Alade turned her birth name into one of the most recognisable brands in African music.