Qing Madi Accuses Former Label of Sabotage, Forgery and Stolen Money in Viral TikTok Bombshell

It started with a TikTok Live. By the time it ended, one of the most serious public disputes in recent Nigerian music industry history was underway

Qing Madi, the young singer whose real name is Queen Mary-Ann Ekele, went public this week with a detailed and damaging set of allegations against her former record label, JTON Music, and its founder Joy Tongo, a Nigerian-American music executive. Speaking directly to her audience in a live session that has since been shared widely across platforms including Instablog9ja, the artist described a pattern of behaviour she says began when she was signed to the label at just sixteen years old and continued until she successfully exited the deal.

The allegations are serious and wide-ranging. Qing Madi claims the label sabotaged her career by telling tour sponsors she would not be going on tour, cutting off opportunities before she even knew they existed. She says money was stolen from her. She alleges that Joy Tongo forged her signature and describes a series of actions she characterised as deliberate attempts to damage both her career and her reputation. The label also allegedly facilitated the illegal takedown of her music, including her popular track Pepper Me featuring Zinoleesky. Qing Madi says she and her team successfully proved that initial takedown was unlawful, only for the label to find alternative routes to remove the project again.

She also referenced another female artist whose career she says was destroyed by the same label a claim widely understood to be directed at Cynthia Morgan, who had her own well-documented and painful public falling out with Joy Tongo and JTON Music in years prior. The suggestion that a pattern exists, rather than a single isolated dispute, has been one of the elements that has most galvanised reaction online.

Joy Tongo has pushed back strongly. In a statement responding to the allegations, the label boss denied the claims and issued a direct warning. She said that forgery and theft were not accusations she would allow to stand unchallenged and warned that if social media was being used to spread false claims, she would pursue every available legal remedy. The $2 million lawsuit she filed against Qing Madi a case which, according to the artist, the label lost has added a further layer of legal complexity to an already charged situation.

What has given Qing Madi's account particular resonance is the detail and the composure with which she delivered it. She did not simply vent. She walked through specific incidents, named specific actions, and closed with a statement that has been quoted repeatedly since the live session ended. "If anything happens to me," she said directly, "it's the label." The weight of those words, and the fact that she felt it necessary to say them publicly, has not been lost on those following the story.

She also took a moment to thank her fanbase, acknowledging that the millions of streams her music has accumulated came without any meaningful label promotion a point that speaks directly to the broader argument she is making about what the label actually provided her during their time together.

The dispute has reopened a conversation that the Nigerian music industry has been reluctant to have loudly or for long about the terms on which young artists, particularly young women, are signed, what protections exist for them, and what recourse they have when those in positions of power abuse their trust.

Qing Madi says she is out of the label and in control of her future. The full picture of what happened inside that relationship is still emerging. But the conversation it has started is unlikely to go quiet any time soon.