A new star on Luxembourg's music scene: Oke

Khalid Oke was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He found his voice as a little boy, singing at church and that voice would later go on to entertain in the Grand Duchy.

"I lived with my grandmother, who is my role model for many years", and the inspiration to Oke's song Thank You, "I come from a big family. Family is very important to me".

"I moved to Luxembourg when I was 11 years old", the softly-spoken singer songwriter says. "During my early high school years I joined the school choir and started building a stronger connection to music."

In 2017 Oke met Jonathan Reichling, aka Johnny Chicago, with whom he has released the single Step By Step; "Johnny took me in and we began the journey people know today."

Since then, Oke has amassed a number of hits and collaborations and is striving to have his music heard on a global scale, he aims to achieve this goal by staying as true to himself and background as possible.

Oke's first success was landing a hit on the Luxembourgish radio, guesting on The Miss Georgia Gray cut, Waiting For So Long. He followed that up with Bleeding in mid 2018 before another collaboration, Weekend with Noize Generation, the track entered the charts in France, Germany and Italy. With a handful of new, personal songs ready for airing, Oke is prepping for a future filled with energetic live performances.

"Being authentic and truthful," are the key elements that are important to that which makes Oke an artist. "I wanna be close to my fans as much as possible - which is very hard right now."

Oke feels he has to tell his story, "I embrace every part of myself, the good and the flaws, which is very important to me. I tend to describe myself as joyful because I am always happy and satisfied with what I have."

Even with success, Oke has his head screwed on correctly, "I try to remain humble... I know where I come from and where I am going."

Oke's roots are what ground him and despite hard times being experienced during the past, he is upbeat and positive about the future. "I am enjoying every moment and I don’t take it for granted," Oke maintains, "I have had to learn to forgive... it helps me heal and get better."

If Oke Khalid could sandwich himself between two acts they would be his namesake Khalid (from the US) and Simi (from his birthplace, Nigeria), "they are both authentic and really tell a story with their sound. Especially Simi she is so 'thegirlnextdoor' and I really appreciate that."

In what is still a young career, Oke's musical highlight was performing in front of 3,000 teenagers in Europapark and winning first place for Luxembourg during the 'Welcome to Europe song contest'.

Building up a fair amount of spins on Spotify, Oke is not yet getting ahead of himself, "I want to keep grinding hard on my music, try to connect more with other artist and probably travel the world to explore other cultures".

These may seem simple goals for someone who is embarking on the popular music route. "My dream collaboration," he says, "would be with Khalid - obviously, Simi, Johnny Drille and Ariana Grande. I mean those are like artists that I look up to and admire."

As someone branching out into the Luxembourg business relatively fresh, Oke is current supported by Davd Galassi from Trutal, he believes that the industry is changing. "There is definitely progress," he argues about support for Luxembourg's music acts, "We can still get it to the next level and help artists get their recognition and exposure. This means a lot to me and I will keep working hard."

Currently you can follow Oke on Instagram, on Facebook and on YouTube.

Currently there are no performances scheduled, due to the pandemic, however there will be some revealed soon.