The global village now enjoys the sounds emanating from Nigeria and yearns for more. Nigerian Artistes on their part are leaving no stone unturned in serving it hot for the global audience who have fully accepted afrobeat.
The Nigerian music industry continues to blossom with the arrival of new acts and an increase in quality and lyrical content.
Nigerian artists have since sold out stadiums all over the world and even in non-English speaking countries as their songs have gone global, thanks to social media and various streaming services.
As the first quarter of 2022 ends, leading Nigerian musicians have begun long tours across Europe and America in a pincer-style movement that will see them rake billions of dollars for their country’s treasury.
The Nigerian artistes have continued to wave the country’s flag high on the international scene as they spread good music all over the globe.
Most collaborations have been made by international artistes like Chris Brown and Davido without lowering the quality of music. This is a message communicated to every lover of music that anyone can be great if they put in the required efforts.
Those who rise to become international stars know the secret of rising because they continually give themselves targets. These are targets beyond average because they want to end up as average singers. They invest in everything to make the music superb with the understanding that competence and mastery are the best marketers. They also don’t know who could be watching them from far and that is how they succeed to penetrate international stages.
In 2022, we have witnessed several Nigerian artists moving beyond the country’s shore to promote their songs across the different parts of the world.
Nigerian music has been on the rise for the past couple of years with artists like Davido, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, and Burna Boy, Olamide, Omah Lay, Kizz Daniel, Rema, Fireboy DML and so on gaining global recognition for their work.
This year has also seen a number of breakout stars and new artists providing a fresh take on Nigeria’s famous Afrobeats genre. Artistes like Asake, Victony, Adintu Victor [AV], Jaywillz, Freshyo Livinglarge, Boy Spyce and others are putting a new spin on Nigerian music and breaking barriers for incoming artistes.
With the efforts of Nigerian artistes taking their music to the doorsteps of other countries, the growth of Nigerian artistry has become rapid and very lucrative. And most of these artistes such as Tiwa Savage, Wizkid are even getting management from international music labels.
They are known to the international community and are now doing collaborations with artistes from all over the world.
One of our favourites and most talked about, not any other than the biggest OBO, Davido announced on Thursday the start of his North America tour with New York City concert.
The North America tour tagged, ‘We rise by lifting others tour’, is scheduled to hold in five cities including New York, Toronto, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles, beginning with a concert in New York on Thursday night.
As we all know, Davido is one artiste that has always embodied his cultural heritage in most of his songs which were not left out in Thursday’s performance in New York.
In the month of May, Nigeria’s Queen of Afrobeats, Tiwa Savage, set North American cities on fire with her ‘Water & Garri’ tour, which kicked off on May 15 in New York City.
Tiwa Savage has been on her North American tour visiting cities like Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, and Minneapolis. The tour would end on the 19th of June.
She also announced her Europe tour named “Water and Garri ” which is to begin on the 13th of August.
The Nigerian star’s Water & Gari EP topped charts and featured an impressive lineup of features from international musical heavyweights, creating a genre-bending project of our dreams. Features include American performer Nas, as the rapper lent his lyrical expertise to track “Work Fada,” R&B legend Brandy on “Somebody’s Son,” and up-and-coming Ghanaian talent Amaarae.
Buju, now known as BNXN is taking over from Tiwa as he has also announced his “Bad Since 97” tour which would begin on the 19th of June and take place in several countries in Europe including Malta, Cyprus, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Lithuania, Warsaw, UK, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Turkey. The tour would end on August 7th.
Joeboy, three months ago announced his maiden tour of the US, a show promoted and organized by Duke Concept in a Dutch-speaking country in South America, and the show was a success and sold out as the musician posted on his Instagram page, “Hard to sleep when you live your dreams. 15,000 people! Thank you Suriname!”
Following the chart-topping success of his 2020 album “Made In Lagos”, Wizkid embarked on a tour in North America last year which was a huge success as the StarBoy never disappoints.
The dates began on September 10th in Boston and continued until October 12 in Atlanta. Wizkid headed to Canada this year’s January.
Made in Lagos is his fourth studio (and second major label). It was released on October 30, 2020, by Starboy Entertainment and RCA Records.
The album features guest appearances from British artists Skepta and Ella Mai, American R&B singer H.E.R., Jamaican artists Projexx and Damian Marley, and Nigerian artists Burna Boy, Tems, Tay Iwar and Terri.
The Odogwu himself! The African Giant as he christened himself, Burna Boy is currently beasting around the world with his unique afrobeat.
Burna Boy had announced a number of concerts in support of his forthcoming album Love, Damini.
The newly announced shows take place in the United States and Canada in July.
The African Giant 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. Thousand of viewers around the world also streamed the show live too.
Superstar Rema also has announced the dates for his Rave & Roses US tour, which will kick off from Neumos in Seattle on August 11, 2022, and close out at Varsity Theatre in Minneapolis, MN, on September 4, 2022.
Rema’s US tour follows the release of his debut album, Rave & Roses, which has topped charts since its release debuting on Billboard World Albums at #7.
Announcing the album’s release on Twitter back in March, he wrote, “Here’s a piece of my soul to you, my debut Album Rave & roses out now. Thank you for the love & support over the years now, RAVE relentlessly! #RaveAndRoses “
Rave & Roses includes features from international artistes such as Chris Brown, Aj Tracey, 6LACK, and Yseult.
Singer-songwriter and record producer Temilade Openiyi popularly known as Tems in 2021 announced her first-ever US tour tagged “VIBE SZN🇺🇸” which saw her touring six states.
Tems is currently touring across 7 countries and has 15 upcoming concerts, touring in the following countries: United Kingdom, Portugal, Netherlands, France, Sweden, Norway, Canada, United States, etc.
Recently, the sexy magical performer postponed two international shows after being diagnosed with a vocal cord illness called Reflux laryngitis.
Sharing the heartbreaking news on her official Instagram page, Tems penned a heartfelt note, saying: “It breaks my heart to say this but there’s no other option for me. I’m not feeling too good at the moment.
“After my last performance I was diagnosed with Reflux laryngitis and I have to take some time off to protect what’s left of my voice.”
Nigerian A-list artistes are almost getting used to parked-out venues, frenzied crowds of Afrobeats lovers, and growing international collaborations. Wizkid, Davido, and Burna Boy have all posted record attendances at the 02 Arena. In 2022, Femi Kuti parked out the Le Fontaine in France whereas Asa took over the Royal Albert Hall in the United Kingdom.
Experts say the increase in overseas tours and parked-out venues is driven by the growing popularity of Afrobeats on streaming services. As of December 2022, CKay’s track ‘Love Nwantiti’ emerged the most streamed song on Spotify with over 250 million views. It was also the most Shazamed song worldwide and hit the top 5 songs in Canada and many other countries. The song has also generated 1.4 billion views on YouTube overtaking the likes of Afrobeat stars Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Davido.
Wizkid, Burna Boy, and Davido top the charts in terms of most-streamed artistes in Nigeria, according to Spotify’s 2021 Wrapped results.
In April 2022, Spotify released a report that ranked artistes such as CKay, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Tems, and Mr. Eazi among the top 5 exported local artists from Nigeria on Spotify.
Spotify celebrated 6 African artistes, podcasters in the month of May and Ladipo was one of them. Spotify said it celebrated the six African artistes and podcasters for making their voices heard and showing the world the vast array of African talents.
The streaming success presents an opportunity for the artistes to explore new opportunities outside the continent, says Tobi Akinkunmi, head of marketing and commercial manager at Universal Music Group (UMG).
UMG is now one of the global music brands that now count Nigeria and Africa as one of their major markets due to Afrobeats.