Legendary Afrobeats singer, Innocent Ujah Idibia, aka 2Face, has clarified that contrary to his former bandmate, Blackface’s claim that he stole the hit song, ‘African Queen,’ it was a collaboration.
DAILY POST reports that there have been controversies about the authorship of the song, which was released in 2004, following Blackface’s repeated claims that 2Face stole the song from him.
Addressing the controversy in a recent episode of the 234 Mzansi Podcast, co-hosted by actor Chinedu Ani Emmanuel, aka Nedu, 2Face claimed that he wrote most of the song.
He stated that he can’t fathom Blackface’s continual claims that he stole the song, stressing that he hopes that his former bandmate will come to his senses one day and accept the truth.
“It’s a collabo. I wrote most of the song actually, but we wrote the song together basically… He [Blackface Naija] will come to his senses one day,” the singer said.
‘African Queen’ shot 2Face into global stardom and brought the world’s attention to Afrobeats.
Following the success of the song, 2Face became the first African artist to win both the MTV Europe Music Award and MOBO Awards. He was also the first African joint winner of the BET Awards.
His song, ‘African Queen’ was the first song to be played on MTV Africa channel. The song was also used as a soundtrack in the 2006 American romantic comedy film, ‘Phat Girlz.’
