Afrobeats singer Yemi Alade turned 32 today and Beyoncé sent her birthday wishes. Beyoncé sent her wishes by posting a picture of Yemi Alade as a child on her website
Last year, Yemi Alade was one of the African artistes featured on Beyoncé’s 2019 album Lion King: The Gift and the film project Black Is King. Alade revealed in an interview that she almost missed out on the opportunity to feature on the album.
Apparently, Beyoncé’s company Parkwood Entertainment reached out to her to collab on a song. But Alade’s manager had never heard of the company and sent the emails to junk, thinking it was too good to be true.
“If someone had told me a few years ago that I was going to be asked to collaborate with Beyoncé, I would have said, ‘Girl, dream on.’”
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Immediately after learning of her manager’s error, Alade got on the plane to Las Vegas, and made her way to Beyoncé’s collection of studios. “They were all-white with lights everywhere, and it was like, OK, a diva is running this ship,” says Alade.
The Johnny singer particularly admired by Beyoncé’s attention to detail – the star’s chefs cooked her Nigerian food. “But that night, I lost my voice. I can’t sing. I’m like, ‘Am I cursed?’”
Three days later, after buying out the local pharmacy and refusing to speak to anyone without a piece of paper and a pen; Alade managed to record her two contributions to the album: The Gift, and Don’t Jealous Me.
Then Yemi Alade finally met Beyoncé on the red carpet. “I hugged her and I said to her, ‘Oh my god, y’all see my heart is beating so fast’. And she replied: ‘Oh, that’s all right. That’s the same way I felt when I met Michelle Obama’.”