Riot Games‘ hit first-person tactical shooter game “Valorant” is celebrating its fifth birthday Monday with the reveal of the game’s first-ever non-playable character, Phoenix’s estranged sister, Mary Ade, in a collaboration music video with popular Nigerian singer-songwriter Qing Madi for her new track “Ego.”
Per the description for the new character, Mary Ade is a burgeoning singer-songwriter who “is gearing up to set the music world on fire with her latest single, ‘Ego.’ After spending her early years in London, she relocated to Lagos, where she honed her songwriting skills and found her voice singing about themes ranging from her family’s past, to her life in Lagos.
Recently named one of Spotify’s Artists to Watch in 2025, 18-year-old “Ole” and “Favorite Psycho” singer Qing Madi (who is a “Valorant” player herself) voices the character of Mary Ade in the game and represents her in the music video.
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“One thing I love about Mary is that she stands for an African culture. Her name is Mary Ade, and because of that, that’s like a Yoruba thing from our place,” Qing Madi told Variety. “So it feels like the extremist of inclusivity, like, this is us being on the map. In terms of video games, Nigerians, we really don’t get a lot– we’re getting there, we’re getting recognition recently, but we don’t really get a lot of inclusivity in spaces such as these. So it’s like, wow, we really get to be on the maps in this one, we really get to have a character that represents us and tells our story and talks like us because, there’s just so much about Mary that it’s like, this is finally our chance to get in the video game space.”
Currently boasting more than 35 million monthly active players, the free-to-play “Valorant” debuted June 2, 2020 in the early days of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The “Ego” music video marks the first time “Valorant” is sharing new music that is not tied to a new agent reveal, in-game maps and skin lines, cinematic trailers, esports event, indicating the game’s future plans to expand its lore and storytelling through music.
Jonny Altepeter, lead music supervisor at Riot Games, says the collaboration was an unusual one in that when Riot approached Qing Madi to team up, she already had an unreleased song, “Ego,” prepared that they thought was a perfect fit for the project.
“The whole idea behind that first meeting was just like, catch a vibe, see if there was something there. And it just felt absolutely perfect; her energy was exactly we were looking for,” Altepeter said. “We got done giving her the presentation, and I was like, so are you interested in writing a demo and turn something out. And she actually pulled her phone out, she said, ‘I’ve been working on this thing. I want to show it to you.’ And it was this rough demo called ‘Ego,’ and it was just her voice and a guitar, and me and [‘Valorant’ creative director David Nottingham] looked at each other and our jaws just dropped. Thematically, it was right on point. The tone, everything that we were looking for in a song, was right there. And so I thought that it was going to be like this long journey to find the right artist and the right song because sometimes it can be pretty intense and we’re trying to find something very specific. And it was like the moon and the stars just a line. And so we just left that meeting feeling totally excited.”
“Valorant” was released on PC in China in 2023. The game launched on Xbox Series X and S and PlayStation 5 last August in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Brazil, marking Riot’s first live-service console game. As Riot’s first live service console game. A mobile edition of “Valorant” made in partnership with Lightspeed Studios was announced in April and is set to debut in China first. As it celebrates its five year anniversary, “Valorant” is also gearing up for its masters esports tournament in Toronto, followed by the championship in Paris later this year.
“When we launched ‘Valorant’ in 2020, we were eager to present our take on the tactical shooter genre with some new twists… all during an unforeseen twist of a global pandemic,” “Valorant” studio head Anna Donlon said. “At the end of the day, we were ready to support players and hoped that ‘Valorant’ would bring some reprieve during this challenging time, even if it was just a little bit. As we pass our five-year milestone, we’ve been presented with a ton of opportunities, moments of reflection and new challenges that keep us in check as more players join us. Our commitment to this game is stronger than ever and I’m so grateful to continue this journey with our community.”
To date, Riot Games Music has curated a catalog of 59 songs tied to “Valorant,” which have amassed nearly 1 billion global streams over the past five years. According to a recent survey by Midia, “Valorant” players report some of the highest music listening hours amongst gamers, who generally also outpace the general population.
“Music has always been an integral part of the creative process when we develop characters in ‘Valorant,’ especially when we think about the type of music an agent listens to, how it reflects their personality and culture, and so forth,” “Valorant” creative director David Nottingham said. “When we thought about how we could integrate music to commemorate our anniversary, we asked ourselves, what if we created a special music moment that reflects the journey of our players and characters? This path led us to Mary, our first non-playable character in ‘Valorant’ and Phoenix’s estranged sister. A gifted musician, her song ‘Ego’ represents a duality in our 2025 journey – a celebration of our players who have been with us these past five years and an emotional moment faced by our agents and Phoenix.”
Head of Riot Games Music Maria Egan says the game’s previous collaborations with global artists across genres have helped “add authenticity because we’re able to explore those cultures and dive really deeply into the stories that ‘Valorant’ tells.”
“The game is set in the modern world in a future realm of Earth, so we are able to tell these regional stories alongside the IP,” Egan said. “As the IP grows, we get to stretch out into more and more different places. ‘Ego’ is another really good example of what we’re now able to do with ‘Valorant.’ It’s a ballad and is much more emotional, which ‘Val’ players might not expect since the game has leaned a lot into EDM and hip-hop in the past. We’re hoping this is a surprise-and-delight moment for our players and a gift of some deeper storytelling around the world of ‘Valorant,’ which I know our players have been hungry for.”
Watch the music video for Qing Madi and “Valorant’s” “Ego” below and listen to the new track here.
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