NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For yoga instructor and former American Idol contestant Naima Adedapo, movement has always been part of her story.
Long before she became a staple in Nashville’s yoga community, Adedapo was a performer — a dancer, singer and entertainer raised on jazz, creativity and the power of expression. Today, she channels that same energy into a different kind of stage: the yoga mat.
Her journey from performing on national television to guiding others through healing and mindfulness reflects a career defined by transformation and she has been named best in the business to do it.
Even Adedapo’s name carries a story rooted in music.
“My mom actually named me after a jazz song called Naima by John Coltrane,” Adedapo said. “It was one of her favorite songs in the world, and it was about his wife. That’s where I got the name.”
Over the years, Adedapo has discovered that her name carries several meanings across cultures. From tranquility to an open space in paradise, and even a word tied to cleansing, the meanings behind her name feel strikingly appropriate for someone who now guides others through yoga and healing.
“It depends on the region you come from, but it’s pretty cool.”
Growing up, however, the name often confused teachers during attendance.
“You know when the teacher gives that long pause when they’re trying to pronounce your name,” she said with a laugh. “I’d just say, ‘I’m here. It’s Naima.’”
Her story proves she has been standing out from the start.
Adedapo was born in Chicago and raised there until age 11, before moving to Milwaukee, where she spent her middle school, high school and college years.
Performance was always central to her life.
“I was an entertainer and I grew up on stage,” she said. “My mom is a jazz lover, so music was always around.”
She majored in dance in college, reinforcing a lifelong connection to movement. That passion eventually helped propel her to national television when she competed on American Idol.
Adedapo made the Top 10 on Season 10, performing in front of celebrity judges Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson and more.
The season ultimately crowned Scotty McCreery as the winner, with Lauren Alaina as runner-up, a season to defnietly remember, if you are a Nashville resident.
“It was such a whirlwind!” Adedapo said.
Despite the intensity of the experience, the contestants from that season still remain close.
“We still have a group chat,” she said. “When somebody’s birthday comes up, we reconnect, send pictures from auditions or little funny moments from tour.”
One of the most unforgettable memories came during the show’s finale when Adedapo performed alongside none other than BEYONCÉ.
“Hands down, one of the best moments was performing with Beyoncé,” she said. “It was surreal.”
The experience also included singing alongside legends like Stevie Wonder and receiving encouragement from the judges.
“Having Steven Tyler fight for me to having Jennifer Lopez say things like, ‘You’re the whole package,’ was incredible,” she said. “Having people who are legendary in the industry validate your talent was pretty crazy.”
Those moments as a performer only rooted more love for guiding people through movement and song more. After her time on the hit music competition it was time to hit Music City and see where else the entertainment industry would take her.
What happened next was unexpected.
Adedapo continued pursuing music professionally and made the move to Nashville in 2025 after signing with an independent publishing company.
“I was writing for the country format,” she said. “We were writing every day.”
While building her songwriting career, she began searching for something else she felt was missing: movement.
As a dancer who had practiced styles like African dance and stepping, Adedapo craved a physical outlet and was on the search to “get moving.”
Yoga, her now specialty, did not impress her at first.
“My first hot yoga class was in Milwaukee,” she said. “I thought I died twice in the class.”
But everything changed after taking a class at Fahrenheit Yoga in Brentwood.
“I took Nikki Taddei class and something shifted,” she said. “I thought, ‘Whoa. What was that? I need that in my life.’”
At the time, Adedapo was raising two daughters as a single mother. Her yoga practice often happened early in the morning or late at night.
“I could only practice at 5 a.m. or at 8:30 at night,” she said. “Before my kids woke up or after I had fed them and put them to bed.”
Those quiet moments on the mat became deeply meaningful and transformative into something greater than what she originally sought out.
“It was the stillness,” she said. “Not being beckoned and called by my kids or my job or my career.”
Eventually, she enrolled in a 200-hour teacher training at CorePower Yoga and made a huge shift in her everyday life.
“I can’t even begin to tell you the amount of transformation that happened in my life,” she said. “It gave me permission to go deep within myself and address childhood traumas and things in my life that weren’t healthy.”
Yoga helped her confront personal challenges, cultivate self-awareness and reconnect with her authentic self, something that went deeper than what she has been previously doing.
“It was an opportunity to see myself more as I am versus who I used to be or who I thought I needed to be,” she shared.
The deeper Adedapo immersed herself in yoga, the clearer her path became.
“I knew I was transitioning out of the music industry,” she admitted. “If I could even remotely hold a piece of the kind of space that was held for me — the space where I experienced healing — then that was my purpose in life.”
She expanded her training extensively, studying power yoga, vinyasa, yin yoga and the Bikram-style. She also trained in sound healing to integrate vibration and meditation into her classes.
Today, her classes range from physically challenging flows to deeply restorative sessions.
“You’ve got the yin and the yang,” she explained. “The yang is the power classes and the movement. The yin is the deep stretching and the more meditative side.”
But she emphasizes that yoga is far more than exercise, which is what hooked her.
“If you look at yoga as thousands of years old, the physical practice would be like a baby,” she explained. “Yoga is really about being able to sit still finding your breath and being present.”
The word yoga itself reflects that deeper meaning.
“Yoga means union: mind, body and spirit,” she said.
It was a practice that brought on more benefits to her life and her switch out of the music industry felt natural because of it.
But she does not expect you to perfect the style from the very beginning. Just like her, she encourages people to find what works for them and work up from there.
Adedapo says one of the biggest misconceptions about yoga is the belief that participants must already be flexible.
“A lot of people say, ‘I can’t do yoga. I’m bad at yoga,’” she said. “And I say, ‘Let’s just have a seat. Can you find your breath?’”
If the answer is yes, she says, then you are already practicing yoga.
Her philosophy centers on the idea that yoga is deeply personal and self-guided.
“What happens between the four corners of your mat is between you and your mat,” she said. “It has nothing to do with anyone else in the room.”
Though Adedapo ultimately stepped away from the music industry, she still sees connections between music and yoga.
“Frequencies create those parallels,” she said.
She said shared rhythm and energy and both experiences that can bring people together.
“You see it in music when everyone is dancing or singing together,” she said. “You see it in yoga when everyone is moving or breathing together.”
In both spaces, there is a sense of collective connection and she doesn’t feel far from her beginnings on the yoga mat.
Adedapo now teaches primarily at Fahrenheit Yoga in the city’s 12 South neighborhood.
“I’m all over the schedule there,” she said. “Anywhere from nine to fifteen classes.”
She also teaches at Iconix, a recently opened downtown gym, where she leads Tuesday morning classes.
Outside the studio environment, Adedapo works with private clients and specialized groups, including the women’s tennis team at Vanderbilt University. She also collaborates with Onsite, an experiential therapy program focused on emotional wellness.
For the past three years, Adedapo has been voted Best Yoga Instructor by readers of Nashville Fit Magazine. Yet she remains characteristically down to earth about the recognition.
“I’m honestly just humbled,” she said. “I’m filled with gratitude that people trust me to hold space for them.”
She is quick to shift credit to the students themselves and says she is grateful to those who continue to show up and her support her, as well as support themselves.
“People will say, ‘You were amazing,’ and I’m like, ‘You did all of that,” she said. “I just held the space.”
For Adedapo, the greatest reward is seeing people feel safe enough to grow, after all that is the entire purpose behind the practice of yoga.
“I’m grateful that people feel safe to show up and just be themselves,” she added.
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