Born in Lagos and based in Luxembourg today, Khalid Oke has risen to become one of the Grand Duchy’s most promising voices. Fusing afrofunk with pop overtones, he’s quickly risen to become on of the country’s most-listened to artists – with over 80,000 monthly listeners on Spotify alone.
Khalid (who goes by the artist name Oke) stopped by RTL Today Radio to speak of his most recent work and all that went into it. As the title of his new EP, Alter-Ego, suggests, it features a cast of alter ego character that each represent facets of Oke himself.
Late last year, he introduced RTL Today Radio host Tom Einarsson to Stella Ross, an alter ego, who performs the track Sensational on Alter-Ego.
Oke was Tom’s first guest on Drive, and together they discussed musicianship in Luxembourg, the mysterious Stella Ross, and his new single, ‘Sensational’.
This time around, Oke joined Tom on Drive to talk about his new EP, which features Sensational as well as the track Born In The Wild. It is based on Khalid’s own background, having been born in Lagos, Nigeria, and he added that “you don’t always get the opportunity – or the story – to be able to do what I’m doing right now. I feel like I have a huge opportunity and I’m really blessed”.
“That’s why I really need to tell this story”, Oke continued. “This song really describes that with afrohouse elements, but also with spiritual elements with Ori.” Ori, the alter ego who performs on Born In The Wild, represents the Yoruba spirituality which grounds the track – and grounds Oke in exploring and retelling this part of his own story.
Oke teased further projects in the works: upcoming concerts in Luxembourg this summer, a short film shoot in Lagos as well as a new album. He couldn’t give a definite date for the release of his first LP yet – but we can certainly expect more great things coming from him in the near future.
You can listen to Oke’s latest interview in full on RTL Play (and linked below), where he discusses his career trajectory, his influences, and his future plans live on Drive with Tom Einarsson.
With his new EP, Alter-Ego, out on 20 February, Oke popped by the studio once again to talk about all the characters, influences and stories within it.
