“The track ‘African Queen’ has been both a blessing and a problem to me” – 2Baba Speaks

Legendary Nigerian music icon, Innocent Ujah Idibia, widely known as 2Baba, has reflected on the legacy of his timeless hit song “African Queen,” revealing that the track has brought him both immense success and persistent controversy.

Released in 2004, African Queen became a defining love ballad across Africa, earning global recognition and playing a crucial role in positioning Afrobeats on the world stage. The song turned 2Baba into a continental superstar and remains one of the most celebrated romantic Afrobeats classics of all time.

However, the track has also been at the center of a long-running dispute. Former bandmate and Plantashun Boiz member, Blackface, has repeatedly accused 2Baba of stealing the song from him. While acknowledging that the song was originally conceived during their time together as a group, 2Baba has consistently rejected claims of theft. He maintains that the final version, composition, and global success of the song were a collaborative result but not an act of plagiarism.

“African Queen is a blessing to me. But it has also brought me plenty wahala. I can’t lie. The song changed my life, but the issues around it never fully go away,” 2Baba said in a recent reflection.

The song's controversy resurfaced in August 2025, after Billboard Magazine ranked African Queen as the greatest Afrobeats song of all time, re-igniting debates online about its true origins.

Despite the disputes, the track remains a cultural classic—an anthem of African beauty and love. For 2Baba, the legacy of African Queen carries both pride and pain, but above all, it remains a gift that shaped the course of African music history.