–By Adeniyi Onifade
The Nigerian music industry has undergone tremendous changes and processes, and is fast moving from being an industry of older entertainers to one dominated by young music stars.
The inclusion of young artistes in the Nigerian music industry has further pushed it out to international levels.
Music stars like Davido, Burna Boy, Wizkid and others are currently making the industry proud with their many music achievements, recognition and awards.
From Cairo to Durban, Nairobi to Freetown, all over African cities youths are complementing their local music with Nigerian genre which today has almost substituted the erstwhile American music that dominated Africa for almost five decades.
Musicians such as Davido, Don Jazzy, Burna Boy, J boy, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, Teni are blasting the airwaves with their own kind of melody which has gained tremendous acceptance among the young and, sometimes the old. One interesting thing is that nowadays one will often come across some internet short fun videos of foreign content with Nigerian soundtracks that blend with the message like no other.
Below is a list of few of them and the mileage they are covering.
Davido
David Adedeji Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, is one Nigerian music artiste that cannot be pushed aside when it comes to his achievements in the Nigerian music industry and globally too.
Davido, according to recent statistics, has over one billion streams on Spotify. He is also classified as one of the most streamed Nigerian artistes on Apple Music.
The DMW boss’ song “Fall”, which was his second single from his second studio album “A Good Time” in late 2019 became the longest-charting Nigerian pop song in Billboard history. The song was officially recorded in 2017.
Burna Boy
Grammy Award-winning Afrobeats star, Damini Ogulu, popularly known as Burna Boy, is sitting proudly on this table as his music boasts effortlessly.
The self-acclaimed African Giant’s hit song, ‘Last Last’ in July 2022 debuted as number 86 on the Billboard Top 100.
‘Last Last’ is one of the songs in Burna Boy’s latest album titled “Love, Damini” which also debuted as number 13 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums.
Burna also made history at the Legendary Madison Square Garden, New York, with his “One Night in Space” concert which was sold out and also hit a million viewers on YouTube just six days after the show.
Wizkid
Grammy Award-winning Nigerian singer and songwriter, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, professionally known as Wizkid is undoubtedly one of the music stars making Nigeria proud on the music scene.
The singer’s latest song “Bad to me” has debuted on Apple Music’s top 100. The song which received a lot of bashing and criticisms has successfully pushed Asake’s ‘Organise’ down to number two, as it takes the number one spot.
His fourth album, ‘Made In Lagos’ which was released 30 October, 2020 has sold 500 thousand units in the U.S.
Since its release, it has recorded 322 million streams on Apple Music, 229 million streams on Spotify, 227 million streams on YouTube.
It also recorded over 140 million streams on Audiomack, over 40 million streams on Boomplay and over 20 million streams on Pandora, making a total of over one billion streams on Digital Service Providers (DSPs).
Kizz Daniel
Award-winning Nigerian singer and songwriter, Oluwatobiloba Daniel Anidugbe, better known by his stage name Kizz Daniel also made the list.
His latest banger, ‘Buga’, has been rated the world’s top five Afrobeat trending globally.
Since the release of the hit song, social media has been awashed with creative skits on Tik Tok, and group performances, with mesmerizing jigs and twists to the rhythm.
Buga, soon became the lead song on Apple Music’s top 100 in Nigeria and top one among the top 100 on Apple in Kenya.
Kizz Daniel in July 2022 broke a record in the music industry as the most streamed artiste on Boomplay.
This achievement as announced by Boomplay was achieved with the help of his successful EP.
‘Barnabas’ was the first to hit over 100 million streams on Boomplay Music.
Teni
Teniola Apata was born on December 23, 1993. Teni came into the entertainment industry with her freestyles on Instagram but came into limelight when her single, ‘Fargin‘ became a hit. The song was widely accepted by Nigerian music lovers, especially because of the powerful lyrics it came with.
Ever since she came into stardom, Teniola has written and released a good number of hits and she reportedly wrote the Davido’s hit single, ‘Like That‘
She Graced the Spotlight with the Release of Her Debut Single ‘Amen’ in 2016. Teni came into the entertainment scene with the release of her debut single ‘Amen’. The song was produced by her first record label the Shizzi Magic Fingers in 2016.
She made her breakthrough after releasing the hit singles “Askamaya”, “Case” and “Uyo Meyo”. “Askamaya” was ranked 15th on MTV Base’s year-end list of the Top 20 Hottest Naija Tracks of 2018.
Teni won Rookie of the Year at the 2019 Headies Awards, and Most Promising Act to watch at the 2018 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. She also won Best New Artiste 2018 Soundcity MVP Awards Festival. NotJustOk ranked her eighth on their list of the 10 Hottest Artistes In Nigeria. She was listed among the “Six Nigerian breakout stars, viral sensations of 2018” by Premium Times Newspaper.