Yemi Alade Put Out Two Records And Nobody Called It A Comeback
Lagos · Friday 11 September 2026
Yemi Alade has released Little Kiss, and appears with Jeriq on Overtake. Two records in the same window, with no anniversary campaign and no comeback framing attached to either.
The number that should be quoted more
She has been releasing music consistently since the early 2010s and has toured widely across Africa and Europe throughout. Set that against the attrition rate in Nigerian pop, where most careers do not survive a change of sound, and it is a genuinely rare record.
What longevity actually requires
| Requirement | Why it is hard |
|---|---|
| Changing sound without losing the audience | Most attempts lose both |
| A touring base outside Nigeria | Expensive to build, slow to pay |
| Owning enough of your catalogue | Decided by a contract signed years ago |
| Releasing when nobody is asking | Requires funding your own campaigns |
The last row is where most careers quietly stop.
The hard part of a long career is not the hits. It is continuing to release records in the years when the industry has moved its attention elsewhere.
Why the pan-African route mattered
Alade built an audience across francophone and East African markets earlier and more deliberately than most of her Nigerian contemporaries, at a time when the industry's ambition pointed almost exclusively at London and New York. That gave her a touring circuit that does not depend on a current Nigerian hit.
The point about coverage
Two releases from an artist of that standing landed with modest attention this week, while a rumour about an unconfirmed tracklist ran across four outlets. That is not a complaint on her behalf. It is a description of what Nigerian music coverage rewards, which is novelty rather than output.
Reporting: Vistanaij and tooXclusive.
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