Uwade Shares New Single '(I Wonder) What We're Made Of'

Nigerian-born, North Carolina-raised musician and academic scholar Uwade has been everywhere over the past few years, quietly. Her emotive voice is what opens Fleet Foxes’ Grammy-nominated album, Shore, and since then she has opened for the likes of Jamila Woods, Sylvan Esso, The Strokes and more. At long last, she will release her debut album Florilegium, out April 25th via Ehiose Records / Thirty Tigers.

Uwade recently shared the first single off of Florilegium with the stunning “Call It A Draw,” and now shares another album highlight – “(I Wonder) What We're Made Of.” Beautifully mellow with an evocative music video to match, “(I Wonder) What We’re Made Of” touches on gratitude and devotion regarding Uwade’s friendships. 

"Romantic love gets a lot of attention so when I was workshopping the project that would turn into ‘I Wonder,’ I wanted it to take on a different shade. It was about affection, gratitude, and devotion. Who better to dedicate it to than the people who have carried me through my life: my friends,” Uwade shares. “This past summer I took a Latin class where we translated Cicero’s 2000-year-old treatise on friendship, De Amicitia. In it one of the characters claims that a friend is an alter idem–another of the same kind, a second self. This is what this song is all about; since we’re cut from the same cloth, I wonder what we’re made of."

Uwade will perform a string of headline shows including a sold out date in London, and US shows in New York City, Seattle, Chicago and Los Angeles. All dates are below and for more information, please visit https://www.uwade.com. 

Uwade’s solo output and collaborations have been met with critical acclaim, and now she prepares to release a full-length entirely her own. Florilegium is a shimmering anthology that finds sweetness and light in sorrow, an amalgamation of disparate influences and recording sessions seamlessly fitting together through her expressive, expansive voice. Her studies in Classics at Columbia and Oxford has informed her work with astonishing originality and depth. Currently in school for her PhD, she cites Catullus and Virgil among her influences (along with Julian Casablancas and Nina Simone).

The album’s title is borrowed from the Latin adjective florilegus, which means “flower-gathering.” “I offer these songs as flowers of gratitude to those who have seen me through my life. I share them with the world as a reminder to cherish opportunities for renewal,” says Uwade, who grew up steeped in the sounds of hymnal choral music and Nigerian Highlife on her dad’s car radio. 

Florilegium came together in three studio sessions broken up over a year and a half. It began in upstate New York in 2022 with Sam Cohen, after she spent a stretch touring heavily in support of Fleet Foxes. Early in 2024, her friend Jon Seale offered her a week at his studio space in New York City, where she further honed her ideas — and then she returned to her home state of North Carolina later that year, finishing the album with Alli Rogers at Betty’s, Sylvan Esso’s sun-soaked studio in Chapel Hill. Uwade felt decisive, empowered, completely in control of her own creative vision.

Tour Dates

3/25/25 - London, UK @ Rough Trade West

3/26/25 - London, UK @ The Forge SOLD OUT

4/25/25 - Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right

5/03/25 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza

5/10/25 - Chicago, IL @ Schubas

5/15/25 - Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

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