A decade after their divorce, musical duo Michael and Alicia Olatuja have proven that love and respect can endure beyond relationships. The former couple, who first joined forces for their album The Promise in 2011, decided to reignite their creative spark during the pandemic.
Reuniting in the studio, Michael and Alicia discovered a refreshing dynamic in their music-making process as friends. Through this collaboration, they realized that the love they once shared had transformed rather than vanished which allowed them to craft a message of hope for their listeners. The former couple released “Olatuja,” their first album since 2011, in May.
“Being able to come together and make music together again, it was like I had that before and after picture,” Alicia told PEOPLE. “We’ve grown so much. How we created the music for this album was so different from how we created the music for the first one, because we are so different.”
RELATED STORIES
She continued, “I didn’t really realize it, honestly, until we did this album. Everything was different. It was better, it was lighter, it was more fun, but also it was therapeutic.”
Everything about their new album began during the pandemic when Alicia came up on their first album and was struck by a profound sense of healing as she listened to it.
According to her, that inspired her to help the world with another album to enable the world to experience the healing she had encountered. She reached out to Michael about the possibility of producing another project.
“We talked and hung out and spent time together in between the transition of our relationship into being friends, so it wasn’t weird for him to hear from me, but we never talked about doing another album. So when I asked him to do it, he was so on,” she said.
Michael noted that around the time Alicia brought up the idea, he had embarked on a 10-day trip to Lagos, Nigeria, during the pandemic.
While visiting various locations in Lagos, a singer approached him and asked, “Oh, are you Michael Olatuja from the Olatuja Project?”
He added that this encounter served as the confirmation he needed to consider a follow-up to his 2011 album with Alicia.
Alicia said despite the significant changes their relationship had gone through, the process flowed smoothly.
“We always had magic when we would create music together, but it was just — you don’t change hats, really. You’re still who you are in that relationship. But it was amazing being able to come in and create as our own entities, as people who had now traveled the world, as people who had now put out our own solo project albums here,” she explained.
For Michael, reuniting with Alicia was incredibly inspiring. He recounted that since their first meeting at the Manhattan School of Music, he had always felt that she understood his music and writing process.
He added that her contributions perfectly complement his work, and vice versa. “For me, it was like being reunited with one of — probably, in fact, my strongest — collaborator to date. I felt like when the two of us got together in one room, the songs would write themselves and we would just, in a way, get out of the way for the song to manifest.”
Speaking about the journey from divorce to becoming friends, he said navigating a long-term relationship moving in different directions is never easy.
He was however quick to add that their separation was handled with respect and love. “Nobody was out to get anybody. Nobody was trying to paint anyone as the villain. Even during that year that it happened, we had engagements through that year that we still did, that we still showed up to and that we gave our very best to.”
Alicia and Michael were married for eight years. Alicia is now married but Michael said, “I’m taking my time.”
The two hope that their latest album will make listeners feel empowered. “So much of our message is about empowerment… but also inspiration. I feel like I want them to leave different. I feel like I want them to leave feeling a sense of possibility,” Michael said.
