Clip emerges of Seyi Sodimu narrating ‘Love Me Jeje’ was rejected by American labels
In the clip from 2004 posted on social media by Nigerian music executive and historian Ayo Shonaiye, Seyi Sodimu recounting his hit single ‘Love Me Jeje’ was rejected by American labels.
According to Sodimu, after recording the song he didn’t release it for two years because he attempted to market it in the US.
“I didn’t release it for about two years because I tried to market it in New York. I went to a lot of record companies and record labels…They told me it was hard to market me because I look American but sound African”.
The singer further shared that after traveling back to Nigeria, he took the song the Ray Power radio who promoted it and in a short time, the record became a big hit.
This is Afrobeats artiste Seyi Sodimu during the #Grammy weekend in Los Angeles in the year 2004, talking about how his evergreen song Love Me Jeje was rejected by major labels in America because he sounded “African”…
Who knew that 20yrs later, a song by another Nigerian… pic.twitter.com/3Nng6jQy31
— Ayo Shonaiya (@AyoShonaiya) February 3, 2025
27 years after its release, the song would get another lease of life after being sampled by Nigerian international superstar Tems as one of the lead tracks for her debut album ‘Born In The Wild’.
The song enjoyed commercial success both locally and internationally where it recently made history at the 67th Grammys as Tems picked up the award for Best African Music Performance.
In a moment of beauty that captures the timelessness of great music, the same record that Seyi Sodimu was told wasn’t marketable in the US in 1997 would inspire Tems to her second Grammy win 27 years later.
In a post on X, Tems hailed Seyi Sodimu for making the clearance process painless while calling the song a timeless classic.
I just want to thank the wonderful @seyimusic for his role in the support and clearing of his OG song Love me jeje. It’s brought the original song back to life for me and I’m glad that it’s getting it’s flowers today. A timeless classic.
I appreciate you so much. Thank you for… pic.twitter.com/4srX5DhKCz— TEMS (@temsbaby) February 3, 2025
