Yemi Alade nearly missed out collaborating with Beyonce because she thought it was a scam

Yemi Alade just admitted that she nearly lost out on the opportunity to collaborate on Beyonce’s curated album, The Lion King: The Gift.

The Johnny singer made the big reveal in an interview with ESSENCE.

According to her, her team had dismissed an email inviting her to join the project as a scam.

“At first we didn’t think it was a legit email. We kind of ignored it for quite a long time,” says Alade in a telephone interview with ESSENCE. “And then randomly, I went through a conversation with someone and realised it was real.”

What followed was a frantic struggle to reconnect with Parkwood as she and her team scrambled to find out if there is a chance the opportunity was still open, almost two months after Beyonce’s team reached out to her.

Weeks after, Yemi Alade found herself on a plane to Los Angeles to find she would be competing with over 150 songs that the Parkwood team had already picked from what appears to have been hundreds of samples, recordings and sounds sent in from artists all over the world.

Then, the unthinkable happened, she lost her voice

“It shocked me so much that I was just weak,” says Yemi. “I had nothing to say I had no reaction. I didn’t know what to do. I could hardly speak. I could hardly sing.

“Of what use am I if I have no voice?” asks the Mama Africa singer.

Luckily, she must have found her voice eventually, or how else could we explain that she is featured in Don’t Jealous Me (which also features fellow Nigerians, Tekno and Mr Eazi) and My Power – two songs out of the album’s 14 songs? The only other artist to have that honour among the nine Africa artists featured in the album is Mr Eazi.

Other Africa artists in the album are Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage (Keys To The Kingdom),  Burna Boy (Ja Ara E), Wizkid (Brown Skin Girl) South Africa’s Moonchild Sanelly (My Power), Ghana’s Shatta Wale (Already) and South Africa’s Busiswa (My Power).

But for Yemi, the collaboration has even more significance as she recounts a moment with her mother early in her career.

“She asked me, ‘What about Beyoncé? When are you going to do songs with Beyoncé?‘” shares Yemi.

“I would laugh and laugh, but she’d ask me that question almost every day like she had seen it. So I definitely give my mom the praise because I feel like she helped me to put it out there in the universe, you know? And it happened,” she says wonderingly. “Nothing is impossible,” concludes she.