Adara kept pushing her father, Seun Kuti, to write a song with her until he gave her one on Na Dem, his new album with Egypt 80. The band recorded the album between tour dates in studios across Lagos, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, London and the United States, but “Adara” started at home, where Seun sat down with her as soon as he got back and wrote the song that now carries her name.
Her voice opens the track before Seun takes over with a blessing in Yoruba: he asks for adara, which he translates as hope for a better day, for himself, for the listener and for everyone, then asks for a blessing on the children. The chorus answers in Pidgin with “If them no believe / No mind them”, telling listeners to ignore the doubters. The blessing then hardens into a demand as Seun lists what the children of the powerful already have, the best houses, the best food and the best schools, and claims “the same best thing for we children” over a chant of “now now now now” telling them to hand it over at once. “It’s a joyful song, but I can’t remove it from the politics,” says Seun. Those politics reach into his own home, where he has to teach his daughter about patriarchy, so the two of them wrote it as a prayer for every child to have a good life.
Seun was nine when he started opening his father’s concerts, singing a few songs with Egypt 80 before Fela took the stage. Three generations of the family have played in the band. Seun’s mother, Fehintola, sang in it alongside Fela, while Seun’s half-brother, Femi Kuti, played saxophone there before starting his own band in 1986. Femi’s son, Made Kuti, took a trumpet solo on “Stand Well Well” in 2024, two years before Adara’s turn on Na Dem. The band Seun inherited at 14 still includes musicians who toured with Fela, now playing alongside newer members from across Africa and its diaspora. Seun has also carried his father’s politics beyond music, reviving the Movement of the People, the party Fela founded in 1979 before the military government shut it down.
Na Dem came out on 6 November through Django Music, produced by Femi Koleoso of Ezra Collective. “Adara” is the album’s fourth single. It follows the title track “Na Dem”, which features the Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, then “Problems”, with the Jamaican reggae artist Kabaka Pyramid, and “DJB”, which puts Egypt 80’s rhythm section up front.