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Today, Queen Naija celebrates her 30th birthday.
The R&B singer is a Michigan native and first started to gain popularity on the 13th season of American Idol, and made it all the way to the Hollywood round before she was eliminated when the top 30 was announced, meaning she’s got a certified voice.
She didn’t let that discourage her, and she got back on her grind, and it all paid off with the release of her track “Medicine” in December 2017. The song has started to gain momentum and currently has over 256 million plays on YouTube.
The momentum continued with her second single, Karma, which led to her signing a deal with Capitol Records in 2018 and dropping her self-titled EP.
Fans have always had an inside look at Naija’s life, and it wasn’t just because of music– she’s got a successful YouTube channel that boasts over 5 million subscribers, where she constantly posts vlogs.
She spoke about her relationship troubles, which she shared on YouTube, and her music with The Fader back in 2018, which led to her focusing all her attention on her growing music career.
“‘Medicine’ was basically made to confirm to my supporters on YouTube what happened in my marriage. They wanted to know was I leaving or not. I didn’t want to say anything because the first time after the cheating situation happened, I stayed. I felt stupid. But then it happened again privately, and I didn’t want everyone to be like, I told you so,” she explained. “So instead of talking about it, I told them I’d write a song about it. Once I saw how crazy it went outside of YouTube, I was like, okay, I need to take music more seriously.”
Continuing to drop heartbreak anthems, her debut album, Missunderstood, was released in October 2020, featuring singles like “Butterflies Pt. 2”, “Pack Lite,” and the Ari Lennox-assisted “Set Him Up,” which helped the project go gold.
Aside from constantly dropping new music, she’s also known to drop a thirst trap or two on Instagram.
Check out some of her hottest IG moments below.
