Biography
A British vocalist, composer, and performer of Nigerian heritage, Alex Boyé has moved through an array of musical and dramatic pursuits that include R&B performance, participation in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the creation of African-inflected renditions of well-known pop tracks. He first gained notice on the late-’90s European circuit as frontman of the boy band Awesome. Baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while still young, he later moved to the United States and established himself in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he launched a Mormon-music career in the 2000s and soon afterward entered acting, taking roles in several stage musicals as well as faith-based television programs and films. Following a series of solo recordings that blended soul and R&B elements with sacred material, he joined the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and appeared repeatedly as one of its featured soloists. Mainstream attention arrived in the early 2010s when he began recasting songs such as “Let It Go” from Frozen and Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” in African tribal rhythms, many of which accumulated large numbers of YouTube views. His visibility increased further in 2015 when he participated in the tenth season of the reality competition America’s Got Talent. In 2019 he issued the album Coming to Amerika, developed in collaboration with producer Randy Jackson and loosely drawn from his personal experiences.
Born in London to Nigerian parents, Boyé spent much of his childhood in foster care after his mother returned to Nigeria. As a teenager he encountered the LDS Church, was baptized, and subsequently performed missionary service in the United Kingdom. A gifted vocalist raised on classic Motown, soul, and R&B, he pursued a professional career that initially led to work as a backup dancer for George Michael. In 1995 he assembled the boy band Awesome, which secured a contract with Universal Records and achieved popularity across Europe during the second half of the decade, releasing two albums and sharing bills with NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys.
Boyé departed the group in 1999; within a year he had settled in Salt Lake City and begun work on a solo project pairing Mormon-themed lyrics with R&B and hip-hop production. Issued in 2001, The Love Goes On was in fact his second solo release, preceded the same year by the secular R&B album No Limits, which appeared in Germany. Shortly afterward, despite having no previous acting experience and limited familiarity with American history, he was cast as Frederick Douglass in a Utah staging of Frank Wildhorn’s musical Civil War when the original actor withdrew weeks before opening. His diligence and upbeat demeanor won over both cast and audiences, and in the ensuing years he continued to perform on stage and screen, appearing in the Mormon film David & Goliath while issuing further Christian recordings such as the 2004 album Testimony and the 2007 release Spirit. During this period he also became a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and served as a soloist on its 2009 album Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. That same year he issued his own collection of sparsely arranged hymns, Be Still, My Soul: Classic Hymns and Folk Songs.
Boyé’s entry into wider popular culture began in the early 2010s through a partnership with the Utah-based ensemble the Piano Guys on an African-inflected reinterpretation of Coldplay’s “Paradise.” Retitled “Peponi,” the track’s video eventually drew millions of streams on YouTube. Although he had previously engaged only rarely with the musical traditions of his African ancestry, the success of the project prompted a shift in direction, leading him to upload his own “Africanized” covers of songs including the Lumineers’ “Ho Hey” and Lorde’s “Royals.” In late 2013 he fulfilled a long-held ambition by performing at London’s Royal Albert Hall as the opening act for Olivia Newton-John.
The following year Boyé achieved widespread recognition with an African-styled version of “Let It Go” from Disney’s Frozen, recorded with Utah’s One Voice Children’s Choir. The video accumulated one hundred million streams and was designated YouTube’s best pop cover of 2014. He subsequently gathered his covers and videos into the CD/DVD package Africanized. In 2015, together with the Utah band Changing Lanes Experience, he appeared on the tenth season of America’s Got Talent, delivering renditions of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.” Even as his mainstream profile grew, he maintained ties to the Mormon community, collaborating with Utah-based groups such as the Brigham Young University Men’s Chorus on his 2015 cover of the Civilization IV theme “Baba Yetu.” He also recorded a duet with Marie Osmond for her 2016 album Music Is Medicine.
After winning the grand prize at the Hard Rock Cafe’s Hard Rock Rising Battle of the Bands in 2017, Boyé began work with American Idol alumnus Randy Jackson along with producers Blac Elvis and Neff-U on a large-scale project that merged autobiographical themes with social commentary. Released in 2019, Coming to Amerika was led by the anti-suicide single “Bend Not Break.”
Born in London to Nigerian parents, Boyé spent much of his childhood in foster care after his mother returned to Nigeria. As a teenager he encountered the LDS Church, was baptized, and subsequently performed missionary service in the United Kingdom. A gifted vocalist raised on classic Motown, soul, and R&B, he pursued a professional career that initially led to work as a backup dancer for George Michael. In 1995 he assembled the boy band Awesome, which secured a contract with Universal Records and achieved popularity across Europe during the second half of the decade, releasing two albums and sharing bills with NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys.
Boyé departed the group in 1999; within a year he had settled in Salt Lake City and begun work on a solo project pairing Mormon-themed lyrics with R&B and hip-hop production. Issued in 2001, The Love Goes On was in fact his second solo release, preceded the same year by the secular R&B album No Limits, which appeared in Germany. Shortly afterward, despite having no previous acting experience and limited familiarity with American history, he was cast as Frederick Douglass in a Utah staging of Frank Wildhorn’s musical Civil War when the original actor withdrew weeks before opening. His diligence and upbeat demeanor won over both cast and audiences, and in the ensuing years he continued to perform on stage and screen, appearing in the Mormon film David & Goliath while issuing further Christian recordings such as the 2004 album Testimony and the 2007 release Spirit. During this period he also became a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and served as a soloist on its 2009 album Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. That same year he issued his own collection of sparsely arranged hymns, Be Still, My Soul: Classic Hymns and Folk Songs.
Boyé’s entry into wider popular culture began in the early 2010s through a partnership with the Utah-based ensemble the Piano Guys on an African-inflected reinterpretation of Coldplay’s “Paradise.” Retitled “Peponi,” the track’s video eventually drew millions of streams on YouTube. Although he had previously engaged only rarely with the musical traditions of his African ancestry, the success of the project prompted a shift in direction, leading him to upload his own “Africanized” covers of songs including the Lumineers’ “Ho Hey” and Lorde’s “Royals.” In late 2013 he fulfilled a long-held ambition by performing at London’s Royal Albert Hall as the opening act for Olivia Newton-John.
The following year Boyé achieved widespread recognition with an African-styled version of “Let It Go” from Disney’s Frozen, recorded with Utah’s One Voice Children’s Choir. The video accumulated one hundred million streams and was designated YouTube’s best pop cover of 2014. He subsequently gathered his covers and videos into the CD/DVD package Africanized. In 2015, together with the Utah band Changing Lanes Experience, he appeared on the tenth season of America’s Got Talent, delivering renditions of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.” Even as his mainstream profile grew, he maintained ties to the Mormon community, collaborating with Utah-based groups such as the Brigham Young University Men’s Chorus on his 2015 cover of the Civilization IV theme “Baba Yetu.” He also recorded a duet with Marie Osmond for her 2016 album Music Is Medicine.
After winning the grand prize at the Hard Rock Cafe’s Hard Rock Rising Battle of the Bands in 2017, Boyé began work with American Idol alumnus Randy Jackson along with producers Blac Elvis and Neff-U on a large-scale project that merged autobiographical themes with social commentary. Released in 2019, Coming to Amerika was led by the anti-suicide single “Bend Not Break.”
Albums
Coming to Amerika
2019
We All Bleed the Same
2016
Africanized
2014
Calling America
2012
Be Still, My Soul
2009
Spirit
2007
Singles
