ELIKIA has shared his latest single Formula, giving us another taste of what to expect from his forthcoming debut album.
The new track follows July’s Wey U From and brings together two things that have played a pretty big part in ELIKIA’s life so far: Afrobeats and football.
Before turning his attention to music full-time, ELIKIA was part of the Ajax academy, coming through alongside players including Jurriën Timber, Quinten Timber, Ryan Gravenberch and Brian Brobbey.
Ultimately, his career took a very different direction, but football hasn’t exactly been left behind.
Instead, Formula takes the mentality and discipline he learnt on the pitch and applies it to figuring out what you actually want from life – without assuming that somebody else’s route is necessarily going to work for you.
“Formula is really about finding your own formula in life,” ELIKIA explains. “Football taught me a lot about mentality, discipline and always wanting to win, and I’ve taken that same mindset into music. There’s no one way to make it, everyone has to find what works for them.”
“For me, the formula is simple: believe in what you’re doing, work hard and enjoy the journey.”
It’s a mindset that seems to be working pretty well so far.
Since leaving professional football behind, ELIKIA has picked up more than 30 million streams, while his breakout track Mentality has now passed 15 million streams alone. More than 400,000 people are also currently listening to his music each month on Spotify.
Those numbers are impressive, but there’s plenty more behind the music too.
With Congolese, Dutch and Nigerian roots, ELIKIA pulls from different parts of his background while developing his take on Afrobeats, with football continuing to crop up naturally along the way. Even his name carries some meaning, with ELIKIA translating to “hope” in Lingala.
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Formula gives us another look at how all of those influences are coming together ahead of his debut album.
There’s still more music to arrive before we get to hear that project in full, but with Wey U From and now Formula, we’re starting to get a much better idea of what ELIKIA has planned.
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