Hours before the release of her debut studio album, Qing Madi is all smiles, with a level of self-awareness and assurance that is rare for a teenager — but then again, Madi isn’t your average 18-year-old.
Nigerian singer-songwriter and budding superstar Qing Madi, born Chimamanda Pearl Chukwuma, has been making waves globally and across the continent since her breakout single “See Finish” went viral in 2022. Madi is an acute talent who values precision and a timeless sound, which is to say that she wasted no time following up that viral success with another hit, “Ole” featuring BNXN, more critically acclaimed singles, and a self-titled 2023 EP; that same year, she hit more than a dozen U.S. cities while supporting BNXN on his North American tour. Madi spent 2024 showcasing her versatility as an artist, even co-directing the music video for the remix of her record “Vision” featuring Chlöe.
Now, Qing Madi is kicking off 2025 with her first full-length album via JTON Music, an ambitious, diaristic, genre-defying 13-track offering titled I Am the Blueprint. Madi had already been in the conversation — she was on nearly every Artist to Watch list of 2024, rubbing shoulders with megastars like Tyla and Bloody Civilian — but with the release of her debut album, she is poised and proven to be one of the biggest African acts of the 2020s.
“You’ve heard my music,” Qing Madi tells Teen Vogue when asked about what she believes sets her apart in the industry. “It’s different. It’s personal. It’s nothing like you’ve ever heard.” On the eve of her album release, Teen Vogue caught up with Qing Madi to talk songwriting, navigating early fame and success, her status as a Kendrick Lamar superfan, and the potential impact of I Am the Blueprint.
Teen Vogue: How did your exclusive listening party go the other night?
Qing Madi: It was pretty good, I loved it. The best part was the fact that everyone had headphones [on], so the music wasn’t really blasting out. You could hear the beat yourself, and I got to hear and see people’s honest reactions to the album, and that was just amazing. That was phenomenal.
TV: Tell me about the process of making this album. When did you start, how did it come together?
QM: For this particular project, I didn’t think I had it in mind that I was making an “album.” I would say it’s more like a compilation, because the first song on the project, I wrote and recorded it when I was 14, and the last song on the album is quite recent, I think I [recorded it when I] was 16 to 17. You get to see different perspectives of mine at certain ages, all compiled. The album is just a journal, really. We had to select the best 13 songs that could tell my story the way I wanted to tell my story, the best way I wanted to put myself forward. I think the process was more of choosing the right songs rather than creating an album, per se.
TV: So when creating that narrative, what was most important to you in terms of what types of songs you included or, lyrically, what you wanted to touch on?
QM: What was important for me was just vulnerability. I made a lot of songs at 14, but the reason why I picked [“Bucket List” to open the album] was because it was kind of like a Dear Future Me letter. The song talks about things that I want acquire and achieve, and I’ve done most of the stuff on that list. So I’m like, “Oh, I was just prophesying.”
