Top Ten Nigerian Music Exports
There's no doubt that about Nigeria's Entertainment industry being the biggest in Africa, from the Nigerian music to Nollywood. Over the decades, Nigerian musicians and actors never seizes to dish out high quality music and movies to it's fans accross the continent and the world at large. We could boldly say that the music industry has grown bigger than the movie industry in terms of production and global acceptance, however the movie industry as also expanded.
Top Nigerian artistes would shut down major event centres in Africa with musical performances, artistes like 2face, Dbanj, P-square, Flavour, Olamide, Yemi Alade,
Phyno, Wizkid, Davido, Patoranking to mmention a few are some of Nigeria's greatest exports musically.
In a chat with our correspondence from Kenya, we wanted to find out which Artistes are currently making waves in East Africa and in Africa generally and she had a response to that.We also had contributions from South Africa and other Pan-African music platform. Therefore, we give you our top 10 music export for the 2015/2015 period. Ratings are based on international recognition, artistes with continental recognition such as the MTV MAMA Awards, Channel O, AFRIMMA (etc) Awards both in terms of Nominations, Awards won and Performances. Also the number of shut down concerts done by said Artiste in African countries.
10. Timaya
The Bayelsa born dancehall singer has never looked back since his first hit single 'Dem Mama', he has consistently dropped hits after hits including the hit single 'Bum Bum' which featured Sean Paul on the remix. He gets billed to perform around the globe and has a special place in the hearts of Caribean countries due to his style of music.
9. Phyno
The Enugu born producer/Studio engineer who has never looked back since the day he decided to spit on the mic, he climbed up the charts after the release of his hit single 'Ghost Mode' featuring Olamide and his follow up singles 'Man Of The Year/Obago' and 'Parcel'. He won multiple awards even before the release of his first album and got nominated twice in the MTV MAMA Awards where he also performed alongside other artistes. He became more popular after his Coke Studio performances and his Guiness 'Made Of Black' endorsement deal. These days if you haven't featured phyno you are not trendy, and his singles 'Connect' and 'Fada Fada' featuring Olamide are both street/Club anthems in African countries and beyond.
8. Dbanj
International Superstar Dapo Oyebanjo aka D'banj is one of the current sort after artiste from Nigeria, he seems to be 'rising from the dead' after his split with Don Jazzy. We all know he has been struggling to produce songs half as reasonable as his songs when he worked closely with Don Jazzy, however we cannot take away the 'kokoness' in him as he keeps releasing songs and hoping one 'blows'. The multiple award winning singer is on our number 8.
7. Yemi Alade
Also known as the king of queens, she rose to fame with her hit single 'Johnny' and has since become one of the most sort after female musicians in Africa. She is known to have a huge fan base in Kenya amongst many other East African countries. She is also widely appreciated for her charity works in different African countries.
6. Davido
He hasn't looked back since dropping one of the biggest hits from Nigeria 'Dami Duro', it's always a shutdown when he is billed to perform at any location. He also continued ruling the music scene after the release of another monster hit and street anthem 'Skelewu' which saw his fan base in Africa, Europe and America grow bigger.
5. Wizkid
Star boy Wizkid is one of the greatest pop stars to emerge from Nigeria, he is known for dropping hit singles after singles that even he the artiste has lost count of his singles. One of his hit singles 'Ojuelegba' went viral it attracted international acts like Sarkodie, Skepta and even Canadian rapper drake jumped on the track for a remix. Drake also features him on a song off his latest album 'Views' which eventually made it to number on the billboard chart, making wizkid the first Nigerian art to top the billboard chart.
4. Patoranking
The 21st century raggae/ragga and dancehall artiste has not stopped making heads spin since dropping hit single 'Alubarika' and 'Girlie Oh', following up with 'Daniella Whine' and the global anthem 'My woman my everything' featuring Wande Coal has placed him amongst the most sort after artistes from Nigeria. His fan base has particularly expanded in Jamaica and many Caribbean countries, since the release of the song featuring Wande Coal. It's always a joy to watch him perform live that's why he's highly sort after and has barely had time to drop singles because he's busy satisfying his fans around the world.
3. Olamide
Olamide aka 'Baddo' as he's popularly known by his fans worldwide is one of the biggest artistes to come out of the African continent, he is known to be the most hard working artiste in the Nigerian music industry for dropping album yearly. His shows are a shutdown, his singles are hits and his albums and concerts are mostly sold out. He grew so big and gained international recognition from artistes and brands and is a guiness ambassador alongside Phyno who is known to be his industry best friend and partner in crime. He is also a brand ambassador for telcom giants etisalat, and a popular betting company.
2. Flavour
He is known as the king of highlife music and also know as Flavour N'abania aka Flavour of Africa. Flavour is the most sort after music art in most African countries especially French speaking countries dueto his style of music. Most of his concerts are usually done in stadiums as normal halls cannot contain his fans, reports from African countries says his concerts are like a church healing crusade where he ministers to the souls of his fans and casts out demons. His hit singles are not countable to name a few like 'Adanma, kwarikwa, Baby oku, Ada Ada, Chinny Baby, Ukwu, Oyi na tum, Ikwokrikwo, Ashawo, Nwa Baby, N'abania, Sexy Rosey ft Psquare, Ololufe ft Chidinma, Shake', therefore making him able to perform for hours non stop. Flavour is a multi award winner and has won notable continental awards like the MTV MAMA Awards, Channel O, NMVA, etc and he performs in all major African music concerts and award shows.
1. Psquare
Psquare which comprises of Peter and Paul Okoye are no doubts the greatest African musician and recording artiste of our time, they are the most consistent and most entertaining brand from Africa. They are the Michael Jackson of our time, every show is a shutdown, every single is a hit, every album is a best selling album and every video is standard to be followed by other artistes. Their albums from 'Last Night' to 'Get Squared' to 'Game Over' down to 'Double Trouble' are all best selling albums in Africa when released. They are known to have the biggest Hits in Africa 'Bizzy Body' and 'Do Me'. Every single song on every single album that they ever dropped was a hit and they can perform for as long as 48 hours non stop given the amount of hit songs they have. They are rumoured the richest music art and are brand ambassador for telecom giants Glo.
