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Qing Madi VibeZ

Qing Madi was still a teenager when she started making records that sound like someone with twenty years of perspective. Thirty tracks of an unusually assured young writer.

Nigeria's most precocious songwriter

Chimamanda Pearl Chukwuma, from Benin City, began releasing music while still in her mid-teens and signed to Jton Music in partnership with Columbia. What immediately separated her from the wave of young Afropop singers was the writing — not the vocal tone, impressive as it is, but the point of view. Her songs are frequently about power imbalance, self-worth and the specific indignities of being underestimated, delivered with a lyrical directness that reads as much older than she is.

Her breakthrough came with "Ole" featuring BNXN and the self-titled 2023 EP, and she has since collaborated across the Atlantic without smoothing out what makes her distinctive.

What to listen for

"Ole" is the entry point — a song about a thief, in more than one sense, built on a beat that refuses to settle. "American Love" is the sharpest piece of writing here: a clear-eyed take on being courted by an industry that wants a version of you.

"Favorite Psycho - A COLORS SHOW" is essential listening. The COLORS format — one singer, one coloured room, no production tricks — is unforgiving, and it is where a lot of listeners first understood how good her voice actually is.

"Vision Remix" with Chlöe and "YBIL (You Believe in Love)" with Kizz Daniel are the big collaborations. "Adenuga" puts her alongside Joeboy, and "Slow Down" with Falz shows how well she works against a rapper.

The deeper cuts — "Akanchawa," "See Finish," "Sins For U," "Goosebumps," "Feeling Alright" — are where the melodic instincts really show. "EGO," made in connection with VALORANT, is the most unexpected item on the list.

Thirty tracks. Watch this one closely; the ceiling is very high.

Go deeper

Her self-titled 2023 EP is short and worth hearing in one sitting. The COLORS session is the other essential.

She belongs to a remarkable generation of young Nigerian women reshaping the country's pop: Ayra Starr, Tems, Bloody Civilian and Fave are all working distinct angles on the same moment. Ayra Starr in particular is the useful comparison — similar age, similar precocity, a very different persona.

For the writing lineage, Asa is the Nigerian songwriter whose combination of melodic sophistication and social observation set the template. Her self-titled debut is one of the finest albums to come out of the country in this century.

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