Yvonne Jegede reveals how she got featured in 2baba’s ‘African Queen’ music video

Nollywood actress Yvonne Jegede has opened up about her surprise role as a video vixen in 2Baba’s iconic 2004 hit, “African Queen”, revealing that she almost missed out on the opportunity.

In a recent interview on Nollywood Radio, Jegede shared that she initially declined the offer when approached by the video’s director. At the time, she was focused on establishing herself as a serious actress and felt that appearing in a music video didn’t align with her goals.

“I told them flat out that I wasn’t interested,” Jegede recalled. “I was more into building my acting career and didn’t see myself as a vixen.”

However, after a conversation with a friend that evening, Jegede said she had a change of heart following her friend’s enthusiasm for the song “African Queen”.

The movie star said she decided to call the director back to accept the role, and that led to the unexpected turn of events of her meeting 2Baba for the first time on set, an experience she described as surreal.

Jegede emphasised that her appearance in “African Queen” was not part of a larger plan to become a video vixen, stating that she had always been focused on acting and had no intention of pursuing a career in music videos.

She added that her subsequent appearance in Djinne’s “Ego” music video was more of a favour to a friend who was directing the project.

When asked about her acting career, Jegede expressed her fulfilment, stating, “It has been fulfilling, I am not going to lie. It has been.”

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She explained, “When the director of African Queen first called, I bluntly just said, ‘No, I am not interested.’ And then, much later that same day, because they were supposed to film the next morning at about 9 a.m., he (the director) said, Okay, let me know if you change your mind.

“And Tuface had just broken out of the Plantashun Boiz, and I had not heard any of his solo songs. So, I did not know what ‘African Queen’ was; I wondered, what is ‘African Queen’, and which song is that?”

“And a friend of mine and I were speaking later that evening, and it just popped in my head, and I was like, hey, Michael, somebody said I should come and do one stupid thing, and I just said ‘African Queen’, the guy just screaming, I love that song, go and do it.

“And I said, okay, let me call the director. And I did, and that very night, he gave me the address, told me what to do, and how to get my hair prepped for the shoot. I got the address and went.

“And lo and behold, I saw that legend Tuface, for the first time, I am like, ‘Ooh, so this is real’. But no, I did not want to be a vixen after that. I just wanted to act; I kept telling everyone, ‘I just want to act.

“But doing ‘Ego’ for Djinne at the time was more like doing something for my friend. And he was the director of ‘Ego’, who was also shooting music videos for Style Plus at the time. So I was supposed to be in the video for ‘Olufunmi’, but I was late. I was stuck in traffic.

“So I missed that one, so that would have been part of my CV, but yeah, I missed that. But no, after those two, I just did not want to do anything dancing; I just wanted to act. But really, you had a double-edged approach to film.”