Love Remain pays tribute to Gboyega Odubanjo on new single ‘LDN GRLS’, featuring late poet: Listen
“It’s truely beautiful that I can share this song that we both loved so much,” Love Remain said of the single
Love Remain has released a new single, ‘LDN GRLS’, paying tribute to the late poet, Gboyega Odubanjo. Have a listen below.
The track – which features on the British producer’s February EP, ‘Is What It Is’ – features vocals from Odubanjo who died after going missing at Shambala festival in 2023. Love Remain was a friend of the poet, whose work has appeared in the Guardian, the Poetry Review and the New Statesman.
Speaking on ‘LDN GRLS’, Love Remain shared: “This song means so much to me, I was sitting on the instrumental for about a year, then during a studio session I had an idea that only yega would really get, his energy was the light that the song needed, and it came at a time when we were both in a place of Joy, we had so much fun throughout the process of putting it together, and they are memories I will cherish forever.
“I’m so grateful we were able to have something that is representative of the time and place we were in and where we grew as friends,” he continued.
Gboyega Odubanjo, from Dagenham in east London, was 27-years-old when he died. The British-Nigerian poet was studying for a PhD in creative writing at the University of Hertfordshire, and had received an Eric Gregory Award, New Poets’ Prize and the Michael Marks Award for his work.
As an editor at Bad Betty Press and Bath Magg (“a magazine of new poetry”), Odubanjo also gave support and mentorship to many developing poets. His first collection of poems, Adam, is due to be published posthumously this summer.
A fundraiser was created for Gboyega Odubanjo’s family around the time he was confirmed missing, which has now raised over £80,000 of its £90,000 goal. The page, set up by his sister, Rose Odubanjo, described him as a “beloved son, brother and friend” whose life was “so suddenly cut short”.
Using the donations, his friends and family have set up The Gboyega Odubanjo Foundation, which will continue his legacy by supporting low-income Black writers.
Listen to ‘LDN GRLS (Gboyega’s Theme)’ below.
