Even though Tiwa Savage is evolving from global ambassador of Afrobeats to genre-agnostic pop matriarch, she has never faltered at showing up active and relevant. Despite spending many years at the top of the industry, she’s never been far from the nucleus, whether through collaborations with global stars and emerging talents or simply showing up to support her peers and represent the culture. With the number of years she has under her belt, it would be easy to plateau or dissipate into obscurity, but Tiwa continues to hold her own. She’s survived the “dangerous sharks” of the industry, weathered the fickle tides of public opinion, and kept her artistry alive.

This year, she’s been present and now, she shows up with “You4Me”, her latest sleight of hand. Tiwa has always maintained a relationship with softness. She’s the queen of Afrobeats, a genre that is anything but quiet, but her music has always carried sensuality, a kind of sweetness that grounds her sound. From the beginning, she has spun moments of tenderness into her work, a trait that has stayed with her through every shift in sound. “You4Me” is a track built around a sample of Tamia’s “So Into You”, that satin-lined 1998 R&B staple that’s never quite left the cultural ether. The beat is mid-tempo, lightly syncopated, and elegantly curved around Tiwa’s voice, which remains one of Afropop’s most texturally interesting instruments.

The Queen of Afrobeats has sung love in all its registers: ecstasy, agony, nostalgia, regret, but “You4Me” is simply a sweet love song, and the sample makes it sweeter.