When Qing Madi scored her first chart-topping single in 2021 with ‘See Finish’, a track that describes the pain a person feels after being betrayed by a close friend – the single debuted at the 65th spot on the Top 100 Apple Music Nigeria chart, and stayed there for weeks, which is a huge feat of sorts when you consider that she was a newbie in the industry at the time she released the single. Not many newbies can boast of doing that number.
In contrast to the lyrics of the songs she releases Chimamanda ‘Qing Madi’ Pearl Chukwuma seemingly has a bubbly persona with a down-to-earth personality and knowledge most people her age do not have – Like her music, the upbeat and upfront persona may be hiding a lot, but there is one thing I established in our 30-minute conversation on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 – Qing Madi (pronunciation: King Maddy) is a star.
Born to a family of six who hails from Benin, Edo State, she has always been interested in arts, whether it was as a vocalist in her local church or as a competitor in the numerous talent competitions she went to when she was younger, she has always been exposed to art.
Madi’s earliest memory of singing started in church while serving as a lead vocalist in various denominations – she had always loved to sing, and as such, it was only natural for her to want to join the choir in her local churches. However, the difference between seven-year-old Madi and the average choir member was that beyond religion, she had the charisma and carriage of a pop star.
“I started from church even with my mom’s indecisiveness with churches. I think I first started in the Catholic church, then we moved to CAC, and then Mountain of Fire, but majorly CAC. I was in the choir in all of them. The biggest part of joining these churches was the choir,” Madi told me during our interview.
“My mom wanted me to be a very active member in the choir, MFM was that church, MFM let me do what I wanted so long as I tied my hair,” she jokingly added.
There are very few Nigerian artistes who never had a religious influence. When we spoke with Tar1q, the music star behind Bad Intentions, he mentioned that he grew up performing at his local church. The same goes for international acts like Wizkid, Simi, Banky W, and Omawumi. It’s no different for Madi, but with Madi, her variations in denominations influenced how her vocals developed – her vocals have a depth that is quite rare.
However, unlike most who had to convince their parents to go into the entertainment industry, Madi always had the support of her parents, specifically her mother, who Madi revealed was a dancer when she was younger.
“My mom was the one always taking me to ballet practice because she put me in ballet when I was very young. We usually went from ballet practice to choir practice, and she made sure I went to the studios. She didn’t need to accept my decision, she was kind of pushing for it as well. My dad didn’t accept it, but now he does.”
Her parents’ support might have made it easier for her to follow her dreams, but her mum’s effort to understand her child is one not many artistes can boast of. Madi, however, didn’t think this was a big deal because she has always had her parent’s support.
“I didn’t even think that much about it until people started putting it to my notice like, ‘Your mom agrees?’ I’m like yeah, doesn’t your mom? I was always a loner, my mom used to tell me that in KG, my teachers would be like ‘Oh she’s not talking to anybody, she’s just facing the wall and singing to herself.’ So, I think that she saw that and she was like okay let me follow this up.”
Aside from music, she was also exposed to ballet and she also competed professionally with her artistic outlets. Although she participated in numerous competitions and showcased her ballet and singing skills, she was more interested in getting an opportunity to participate in Nigeria’s Got Talent.
“I think my first competition was like at nine, but it wasn’t a serious competition – we were basically waiting for Nigeria’s Got Talent, like that was the main one I wanted to go for. After season 2, I was rehearsing every day because I thought they were bringing back Season 3, I don’t think they’ve had one since then. So heartbreaking.”
Nigeria’s Got Talent is a talent show that allows a range of artistes to showcase their art, the franchise got into Nigeria in 2012 but got discontinued in 2014 when Madi was eight, and unfortunately, she could not compete on that stage. However, she continued practising while honing her skills as a ballet dancer, singer, and eventually a songwriter.
“The first professional song that I ever wrote was in Jss 1. Songwriting was actually one of the main reasons why we moved to Lagos, I did songwriting as a job for other artists, I did that way before releasing my stuff, so it was like a side thing. I started songwriting in Benin for those local artists around me, and then when we moved to Lagos, I started getting proper songwriting gigs before releasing my stuff.”
She did all these while understudying her musical influences. She told me one artiste who she particularly ‘stans’ is the Grammy-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar. As surprising as it is that Kendrick Lamar is one of her inspirations, it also makes sense – the depth of her lyricism and style are two things that show that she indeed understudies the rap star known for his flow and socially conscious songwriting.
“I grew up listening to Kendrick, and he was my mentor. Kendrick became my mentor because I grew up in Benin, and everybody around me was mostly dog rappers, and they liked Kendrick a lot. They were the only ones that influenced me around that time, so they rubbed off on me, and I became a Kendrick Lamar stan.”
As her love for Kendrick grew at a young age the more she wanted to imitate him and this gave her a tomboy persona. “I just wanted to be like Kendrick, so I started acting like a guy, which I think I need to change, I’m working on it,” she said.
Although she is heavily influenced by Kendrick, she is also influenced by the sound of legendary artistes like Brandy, Davido, and Tiwa. The latter explains why she has formed a niche in creating R&B-influenced songs and why she defines her sound as Afro-R&B.
“My sound is majorly Afro R&B because I majorly make those types of music, mixing Afrobeats and RnB, but you can also hear me on any type of song. So, I wouldn’t give myself a genre yet, but if it’s like a major, I would say Afro R&B.”
Alongside her songwriting, she started releasing dance and song covers on social media in 2021, three years after she moved from Benin to Lagos to officially kick-start her music career. Her covers of songs belonging to artistes like Asake, Tems, and more, helped her gain visibility. She added this to her thriving songwriting career as she worked with artistes like Skales and Iyanya.
In mid-2022, everything changed. She released a freestyle of her single ‘See Finish,’ and this led to more visibility that got her signed to Jton Music.
“I think it was after ‘See Finish’. See Finish was originally a freestyle that everybody wanted me to record, so during the process, I got signed to JTon Music. The management at Jton was like, okay let’s release ‘See Finish’ since that’s what the public wants, but we didn’t know it would have the type of traction it had.
“So when it did, I automatically escaped the training process. After that, we searched for a couple of record labels, and Jton searched for which was best for me and my career, my age and family-wise, and that’s when I got signed to Sony Colombia.”
In October 2022, she released See Finish, a single that has amassed over 1.5 million streams worldwide since its release, with its TikTok sped-up version culminating over 300,000 user videos that led to the eventual virality of the song on the platform.
Since its release, the music star has been working on more songs to sustain the momentum, and eventually, on March 17, 2023, she released ‘Why’, a song that addresses teenage bullies and other social phenomena. Wrapped in a mature R&B vibe, Madi flexes her pen game as she creates another hit single with ease.
“People in Secondary School are wicked. Although ‘Why’ talks about it, it’s not about that one experience. I was bullied a lot because I was one of the youngest. To be honest, I’m not sure why I was bullied.
“The bullying wasn’t anything physical like the violent beat up or anything, but I feel like it was just those minor, I’ll come to class, and then it would be time for note checking and somebody would steal my note then return it after note checking so that they would flog me like I said they’re demonic.
“I’m kind of like they want to frustrate me every day in this school, but no problem. That was when ‘Why’ came. I think I was just thinking about all of those annoying bullying moments, and I was like okay cool let me just write something that goes along with that.”
The idea behind the track might have seemed a bit immature, but it’s an actual big deal, a situation that her pen game turned into a track that thousands of youths and teens can relate to deeply. Not many artistes can do that.
She is channelling this energy into working on her forthcoming EP, the EP which she describes as her introduction to the world would reportedly include varied genres, including a rap track inspired by her love for rap and Kendrick Lamar.
“The EP contains a bunch of songs I recorded during my camp, and we were trying to select the most revealing songs that expressed my personality so we wouldn’t confuse the public about the type of music I make because this is that first body of work. So we’re very careful with the kind of songs we pick and the kind of story we’re telling in the process of choosing these songs.
“We still have a lot to listen to. We still go back, we listen to the project link, and we’re like oh we feel like this song doesn’t interpret what we’re going for, and then we swap, but all in all, we are going to try to project me as a teenager that released See Finish and blew up.
“It’s coming from a very humble and normal approach, but the songs are mind-blowing. I love them, especially because they are coming from different genres,” she said.
Among these ranges of genres, we would also be able to experience and see how well she would do on a hip-hop track, as she mentioned that she is considering a rap track for her forthcoming project.
“My forthcoming project has a rap song. There is a pure R&B type track on the EP, and there is a song that expresses the hip-hop-ish side of me. I’m excited for that one, so yeah there’s a touch of Kendrick there.”
With the amount of effort and brilliance that goes into her musical projects, it’s also easy to forget that she is a 16-year-old girl who typically according to the Nigerian education system should probably be rounding up her secondary school education, but Madi had graduated three years ahead of her peers.
“My mom and I decided to take a break from school because the music thing kind of yielded way quickly. We want to just relax a little bit and take a while. Maybe when I’m like 18-19 try to enter the school system, but for now we’re just trying to chill it.”
Considering that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) only allows students under the age of 18 to write their transitory exam, it makes sense that she takes a gap year. Surprisingly, she is not looking to enter the educational system to study an artistic-related course, instead, she wants to study Law.
“I honestly want to study law for the business aspect. I wanted to study Law in secondary school, and I still haven’t changed my mind. I think it would be really dope to add Barrister to my name.”
Funny story, when she was younger she wanted to study Law to jail a couple of people she had blacklisted. “That was when I was younger. Now, I have to study Law for the betterment of society and myself,” she said
With all that she has managed to achieve in a short time, the transition from Amanda to Qing Madi in the space of a few months has seemed difficult, but Madi seems to have not processed it as much.
“It’s been calm I guess, I don’t know how to put it, because I think it was a very fast switch from everything. I haven’t felt like a drastic change – just in schedule and in work and from people as well – because now everybody kind of gives me attention for some reason. I think it’s a great switch, and it’s been normal,” she said.
By the time her rookie season comes to an end, she may or may not have fully processed her rise to fame, but the testament to her success will always be there, with two songs with over 2 million streams in the space of five months, a pen game that is growing to be unrivalled, a wealth of experiences ahead of her, and a distinct sound that projects her beyond her age group, there is no ‘see finish’ that can take away that achievement from her, and we look forward to more.
When I asked her what the future held, validly unsure of what it is, she said; “I really do want to be a barrister so I think that that’s like the end goal. After music for a couple, and then try to study Law, become a professional, go deeper into art, dancing, and music, and maybe open my dance studio. I’m not sure.”
Whichever way she chooses to go, her artistic abilities are enough to sustain her.
The post Qing Madi: How The 16-Year-Old Artiste Tells Her Teenage Struggles With Music appeared first on Nigerian Entertainment Today.
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