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UMS Live Session

Tunde Olaniran

Streaming now through May 10

Tunde Olaniran performs an exclusive set featuring WDWHI (“WE DON’T WANNA HEAR IT”) — the first of four singles from Tunde’s forthcoming full-length album to be released during their Digital Artist Residency with UMS.

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Setlist & Lyrics

Vulnerable
There’s a pain in my shoulders
And a pain in my neck
I’m jumpy and I’m shifty and
and I haven’t slept yet
tumble into my hoopty
and we rumble onto my street
it’s only five minutes
But it feels like an eternity
pull into that parking space
I always seem to claim
sit another five minutes
with a blank look on my face
It’s hard for me to move
And I tend to lose my will
when the things I’m asked to do
don’t jive with how I feel

I just wanna be vulnerable
So give me a chance to show it all
What love can I give if I can’t love myself
Go and in go out of this world by ourselves
So I just wanna be vulnerable
While I’m still here

I put you on speakerphone and asked can I be real
you sat back in your hybrid and listened to the deal
I’d reached the point of no return
learned all the lessons I could learn
now my eyes wide and my braids done
the stage lit with these lights on and
my vision burn like a ray gun
Like a ray gun
Like a ray gun
Like a ray gun

I just wanna be vulnerable
So give me a chance to show it all
What love can I give if I can’t love myself
Go and in go out of this world by ourselves
So I just wanna be vulnerable
While I’m still here


Jean Grey
Purely psionic bitch
Live for my future self
For me who looking out
Could there be no one else
I go and scan the crowd
Childhood anxieties
Promise that you won’t take
The floor out from under me

Don’t know who hurt you
I have been hurt too
I know that you’re scared
I’ve been just like you
baby you got wounds
I have my wounds too
I know that you’re scared

Jean grey, Jean grey, Jean grey
Coming thru to save hoes all day
Jean grey, Jean grey, Jean grey
Psionic bitch in the x-wing

Purely psionic bitch
the stillness of outer space
That’s when xit came to me
the power i couldn’t name
Empathy i could give
High insecurity
Buckle under the weight
All of this telepathy, uh-huh

I know who hurt you
Don’t let that break you
I know that you’re scared
I’ve been just like you
baby you’ve got wounds
I have my wounds too
I know that you’re scared

scott he tried to find me
but i’m out the ozone
got a weak mind he’s
cracked like an old phone
i’m psionic
don't try to hex me
blue and gold everything
hop in the xwing
skrt to the next beeeeeat yuh
surfin on a jet ski yuh
call you emma frost
i’ll make you wish you never met me
all my thoughts in 4k
you’re not fully rendered
they say ‘ugh your mind’
index finger to my temple
when i learned my lesson
see the battle mainly mental
had to take three months
had to get my mind right
It’s so simple

I know who hurt you
Don’t let that break you
Baby you've got wounds
I’ve got my wounds too
I know that you’re scared

Jean grey, Jean grey, Jean grey
Coming thru to save hoes all day
Jean grey, Jean grey, Jean grey
Psionic bitch in the x-wing


Dead Last
Feelings rehearsed
Burned once
I learned, i learned
Watched you performed
Now it’s my turn
My turn

Had me on the shelf now i’ve gone bad
We had a moment now i’m off that
Put you first once now you dead last

Once round the sun
We stayed in touch
Come back to love
It’s easier said than done

You never know what you want
You had it but now it’s gone
Don’t be afraid of big love

Had me on the shelf now i’ve gone bad
We had a moment now i’m off that
Put you first once now you dead last


The World
I mined the earth for parts of me
What secrets did I find
A big and dark and stranger thing
The first one of my kind

I took my strange ways of being
And made a world that worked for me
I took my strange ways of being
And made a world I couldn’t get enough of
I made a universe
I couldn’t get enough

Don’t know who might be watching me
Stand my ground or hide
Conversations in my mind
I put my fears aside

I took my strange ways of being
And made a world that worked for me
I took my strange ways of being
And made a world I couldn’t get enough of
I made a universe
I couldn’t get enough


WDWHI (We Don't Wanna Hear It)
We don’t wanna hear it, no

Mhm ain’t this the life?
Don’t it live up to the hype?
What more could anyone dream?
Gotta big tv
Flat screen
Big salary
I got a app that tell me when to eat
I got a app that help me go to sleep
Mhm now what could be
Sweeter than the twenty-first century?

It’s not that deep
Why should I care?
Don’t you agree?
It’s not that deep
Why should I care?
Don’t you agree?

Don’t call it right when it’s wrong
Maybe we been wrong all along
Ring the alarm, what’s going on?
We don’t wanna hear it, no
Leave us alone, just go to bed
We don’t want the drama
We don’t need the mess
But do anything for happiness
We don’t wanna hear it, no

What’s that flag on your lawn?
To what religion do you belong?
In what zip code were you born?
Mhm that’s what I thought along
Fantasy on display
Underneath it decayed
Think you’re safer when you’re quiet and do your best
One emergency between you and homelessness

It’s not that deep
Why should I care
Don’t you agree?
Why should I
It’s not that deep
Why should I care
Don’t you agree?

Don’t call it right when it’s wrong
Maybe we been wrong all along
Ring the alarm, what’s going on?
We don’t wanna hear it, no
Leave us alone, just go to bed
We don’t want the drama
We don’t need the mess
But do anything for happiness
We don’t wanna hear it, no

We don’t wanna
Yeah yeah yeah
Go to bed
Why should I
Need the
We don’t wanna hear
We don’t wanna hear it, no


Miracle
Don’t you know
I’m the fifth element
One-thousand stories high
I’m way up on the ledge

When the lights go out
I am the batteries
And I can see the shooters
Through the battlement

Can’t forget that I’m a miracle
It’s true, don’t you
Forget you’re a miracle too, so I
Won't forget that I'm a miracle

I kitty pryde through these impediments
I can be the revenant
It can be maddening
this truth I'm standing in
and all these ropes unraveling

I know you’re out there
I know you’re out there
I know, I know, I know, I know

Find Tunde’s albums on

Apple Music logo  Spotify logo

Production Credits

Featuring
Tunde Olaniran
Zariah Fowler
Ayanna Coleman

Director/Editor
Oren Goldenberg

Production Designer
Vanessa Cronan

Audio Production
Mitchell Graham

Cinematographer
Ben Wolf

Art Director
Christiana Laine

Lighting Director
Zach Giamportone

Second Camera
Jofre Beltran

Production Assistants
Drew Drialo
Elijah Hurn

Art Assistants
Sarah Wondrack
Sarah Cohen

Written and Produced by Tunde Olaniran

Filmed at El Club in Detroit, MI

UMS Digital Residency Support

Supporting Sponsors
Joe Malcoun and Caitlin Klein
Julia Darlow and John O’Meara
Anne and Paul Glendon
Norman and Debbie Herbert

Patron Sponsors
Stephen and Rosamund Forrest
Beverley and Gerson Geltner
Susan and Richard Gutow
James and Nancy Stanley

Funded in part by
UMS Sustaining Directors

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

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