Qing Madi Wants You to Know She Is ‘The Blueprint’

Audacity is an acquired trait, andQing Madi — born Chimamanda Pearl Chukwuma — has it in excess. With her assured voice and undeniably potent songwriting, the 18-year-old has become one of the shining lights of Afropop. A successful EP and slew of singles have continued to burnish her still-rising profile, making her debut album, I Am The Blueprint, one of the more anticipated releases of the music year.

OkayAfrica recently caught up with the artist over a Zoom call. Wearing a fluffy pink and brown top, Qing Madi appeared radiant, her flowing golden hair accented with streaks of blue. She mentioned she had been working on the songs for a while and described the new album "as [a] compilation of the levels of my vulnerability as an artist."

Like many artists, Qing Madi's album emerged organically, without a predetermined conceptual framework. Yet, her artistry transcends the need for a tight thematic narrative. Throughout I Am The Blueprint, her voice reveals a remarkable maturity of her musical capabilities, one that can create different kinds of records. "Bucket List" opens with the usual affirmative salvo of Afropop; when she sings about winning a Grammy and sorting out her family's needs, a unique ambition puts the artist in our faces.

"I wrote it when I was 14," she says about the record. "At that point, I was still in the works of finding my way to school and being a ghostwriter. So music wasn't like a serious thing. I wrote it from a point of view of what I wanted for myself. It's a bucket list, as the song goes. Some of the things on that song, I've achieved them now, and I'm just like, 'Wow, okay!' It's more like a wishlist, like, 'Hey, future me, this is what you need to know; this is how we felt when we were at this stage.' So it's like a letter to my future self."

The other songs on the album reflect Madi's ability across different periods. The beautiful serenade of "Akanchawa" recalls the Igbo-tinged odes of P-Square, set forth by warm, unhurried production. "It's A Game" showcases her handling of emotional tension, with a pensive beat drop spurring some of her most incisive writing. "Now you know that you got me restless; how do you sleep at night?" she asks on the hook, her tone breaching the fine range between dissociated and intense.

One goes through the album and emerges with an appreciation of the artist's perspective, which shines through what she demands of love and how she loves herself — a quality visible through the girl-sheen of her bubbly personality. It's a poignant privilege that comes with being loved, and Qing Madi has always expressed the importance of her family and community.

Madi's close-knit family has been instrumental in her musical journey. She goes everywhere with her sister-assistant, and her musical roots trace back to her mother, who first nurtured her creativity. In those early days, they would rehearse together, with a television remote serving as Madi's makeshift microphone. "She saw it in me before I could even recognize it," says Madi. One time, while they lived in the Ajah area of Lagos, a neighbor who owned a studio heard her singing and asked if she was interested in writing songs for a client he worked with. They worked together until a 16-year-old Madi released"See Finish," her breakout single, two years later.

"I felt like deep down, I was very jealous that people got to sing my lyrics," she says, "because people appreciated it way more because they had a familiar face in front of it. I felt the songs might die off if I sang those lyrics because they didn't know me. So I would hear my songs on the radio and be like, 'hmmm.' I really wanted to be in front of it, but I understood the situation and needed the money."

Qing Madi leans into her global R&B influences on records like the Chlöe Bailey-featured "Vision (Remix)" and"American Love." However, her artistic sensibilities extend beyond these influences, channeling the Pan-African market awareness exemplified byartists like Yemi Alade. She is noticeably popular in East Africa, and last year, she had a sold-out concert in Uganda. Even the guitar-heavy parts of I Am The Blueprint seem to nod to those influences.

Madi's groundedness mostly comes from her family; her mother is a pivotal figure, providing an unfiltered perspective in an industry often characterized by flattery. "She's not afraid to tell me no," Madi reflects, acknowledging the challenge of navigating fame's echo chamber. "A lot of the time, with the fame that I'm acquiring, I have a lot of yes people. People that just adore me — they find the good in the bad that I do, and it's not something that I'm comfortable with."

This hasn't stopped industry validation from finding Madi, not when you're that good. In November 2023, she wasnamed Apple Music's Up Next artist and sang backing vocals on the Wizkid record"Diamonds." She credits Kizz Daniel, Joeboy, and BNXN for her rise to prominence — the latter inviting her on a seven-state American tour. Now, with her debut album out, the emerging talent is primed to hold a similar level of influence for rising artists, especially those who connect with her vision for art.

On I Am The Blueprint, that vision manifests as an intricate relationship between Madi and her subject matter: her life story. Intimate touches balance an album whose ambition will undoubtedly place it in conversations about impressive Afropop debut albums. The album's 'blue' motif traces back to her childhood, when people would challenge her unconventional preference. While others insisted that girls should like pink and boys blue, Madi remained resolutely herself.

"I wanted something that reminded me of my childhood in everything I did," she says, "so it was very important for me to incorporate the color in my actions. First, it was my hair, and then my debut album. I thought deeply about this album. Every time I listen to it, I'm struck by the same thought: this is exactly how music should make a person feel. This is how music should sound."