Nollywood actress Yvonne Jegede has finally shed light on the surprising, almost accidental, way she secured a role in 2Baba’s globally iconic “African Queen” music video, an opportunity that arose when she was least expecting it.
Reports says, Jegede vividly recalled that the life-changing moment occurred while she was casually sitting on the set of a different film, Missing Angel.
“I was sitting beside Uncle Charles when his phone rang. Charles Nova turned to me and said Uzor, the director of African Queen, wanted to speak to me,” she narrated.
According to Jegede, the call felt random and abrupt. She recalled the director’s request: “He said, ‘I want you to do a music video for me tomorrow.’ I was like, music video?”
Jegede admitted she was initially uninterested. Having previously appeared in other music videos where her primary role was just to dance, she was ready to decline. “I said me I don’t want to do a music video o,” she recalled. The director pressed further, hinting that the project was the video for “African Queen” by 2Face (now 2Baba), but she maintained: “I sha said I don’t want.”
It took a phone conversation with a close friend later that same evening to completely change her mind.
“Before I could even finish saying African Queen, my friend was already quivering on the other end of the phone,” she said, describing his intense excitement. Her friend repeatedly urged her to grab the opportunity, emphasizing his love for the song—a track she hadn’t even heard yet.
Motivated solely by his enthusiasm, Jegede called the director back around 9 p.m. “I told him, ‘Okay, I think I’ll do the video,’ and he gave me all the information,” she explained.
That same night, she immediately hurried to Surulere to prepare for the shoot. “There was a studio and a salon. When I got to the salon, they already knew someone was coming to get a specific hairstyle. After they were done, I took a bike to the location,” she shared, highlighting the seamless organization behind the high-profile project.
The video shoot that followed would go on to become a benchmark in African music history and marked the true commencement of her career. Jegede has since grown into one of Nollywood’s most recognized faces, but the actress firmly credits that iconic, chance moment as the starting point.
“And that was the beginning of my career, with the African Queen video,” she affirmed.
