Magixx Mourns Mother Esther, Six Years After She Inspired Some of His Most Vulnerable Music
For Magixx, music has always been a place where the personal could become universal. But as he mourns the death of his mother, Esther Adelabu, the line between the music he makes and the life he has lived feels particularly difficult to separate.
The Nigerian singer, born Alexander Adelabu, announced his mother’s passing on August 23, 2026, in an emotional tribute shared across his social media pages. Magixx opened a window into the relationship he shared with the woman he described as his “reason,” “guardian,” “twin,” and “everything”.
“I have never felt pain like this, Never been this lost,” he wrote, admitting that he was still struggling to process the reality of her death. His tribute painted her as a woman who spent the final six years of her life fighting through illness while remaining deeply committed to the people around her. Magixx recalled watching her fight for her family, friends, and even strangers, insisting that sickness never completely stripped her of her joy. She remained, in his telling, full of life, strength, and a smile.
Beyond being his mother, Esther was clearly one of the foundations beneath Magixx’s life and artistic journey. He remembered her free spirit, wit and kindness, describing the kind of personality that made people fall in love with her almost immediately. He even revisited an inside joke he shared with his friends: if his mother ever had a problem with someone, then that person was probably the problem. Somehow, he said, she always proved him right.
It is the intimacy of those memories that makes the tribute particularly painful. Magixx was mourning the person he considered his safest place.
“You are my reason, my why, my guardian, my twin, my everything,” he wrote, before expressing pride in having been born to her and promising that he would choose her again in every lifetime.
He ended the tribute with a sentiment that captured both the finality of death and his refusal to imagine their bond as truly ending: “This isn’t goodbye, it’s goodnight.” He called her his queen, promised that they would meet again in the morning, and thanked her for everything.
The grief also carries a deeper musical history. In June 2024, while discussing his single “Okay” with Chude Jideonwo, Magixx revealed that a significant portion of the song’s emotional weight came from watching his mother battle health challenges. At the time, he described writing the song during one of the lowest periods of his life, while simultaneously navigating the pressures of his career, family, and public expectations. He estimated that about 60 percent of the pain in the song was connected to his mother’s health.
That revelation now gives “Okay” an even more poignant place in his catalog. What once sounded like an artist trying to reassure himself through a difficult period now stands as part of a larger record of the relationship between a son and a mother he knew was fighting to stay.
Magixx had previously spoken about how difficult that period was. Around the time of his Mavin unveiling in 2021, his mother was already dealing with a serious health challenge, a period he later recalled as one of the worst feelings he had experienced. Since emerging under Mavin Records in 2021, Magixx has built his career around an ability to move between Afropop, Afro-fusion, R&B and soul without losing the emotional core of his songwriting. His breakout records, including “Love Don’t Cost a Dime,” “All Over” and “Okay,” introduced an artist who could make vulnerability sound effortless.
For Magixx, there may be no immediate lesson to be extracted from this moment. There is simply grief, the kind that makes the familiar world suddenly feel unfamiliar. The kind that leaves an artist who has spent years turning pain into melody with very little to say. For now, Magixx is simply a son mourning his mother.
