‘There’s Never Been a Greater Time to be a Nigerian Artist’: But is There Room for The Next Burna Boy?

When I’m on stage, it’s a fucking Rema party – make some noise!” The crowd obliged as the Nigerian singer strode across the Wireless festival stage. Midway through his set, Rema brought on two of his compatriots, Shallipopi and Zerry DL, to perform their hit, Benin Boys. Over the annual two-day extravaganza, held last month in London’s Finsbury Park, five Nigerian artists thrilled the audience.

Across Europe and the US, Nigeria’s Afrobeats stars have featured prominently on the 2024 summer tour circuit, from Burna Boy celebrating the fifth anniversary of his African Giant album at Koko in Camden, London, to Tems in the lineup at the Montreux jazz festival in Switzerland and BNXN appearing at the Gramercy Theatre in New York.

Fuelling these successes, far removed from the razzmatazz of the big stages, is the recent entry of the world’s biggest music companies into Nigeria. Since 2017, Lagos has become a global music powerhouse, as Sony Music, Warner Music, Universal Music Group and others compete for talent, market share and profits.

With help from TikTok and a rapidly growing global appetite, Nigerian stars including Wizkid, Davido, Rema, Burna Boy, Ayra Starr and CKay, have achieved international acclaim, scoring hits and a slew of cross-cultural collaborations with their western counterparts.

Every artist with leverage – which translates these days as a hit record or a big social media following – has signed contracts with the foreign labels, drawn in by the allure of lump-sum cash advances, and a chance to expand their audience base.

And why not? According to the most recent Global Music Report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), sub-Saharan Africa was the fastest-growing recorded music region in 2023 – for the second consecutive year.

It was also the only region globally to surpass 20% growth, with revenues up 24.7% year on year, primarily driven by paid streaming revenues, which grew 24.5% year on year. Rema joined the “Billions Club” on Spotify in September 2023 with his song Calm Down, which featured Selena Gomez. It was the first time an African artist-led track had recorded 1bn streams on the platform.

The term Afrobeats is an umbrella term given to popular music from west Africa that began in Nigeria and Ghana in the 2000s. It is not to be confused with Afrobeat, which started in the 1960s and fuses traditional Yoruba and Igbo music with American funk and jazz.

Much like Seattle’s grunge scene in the 1990s, Afrobeats is locally understood as a broad movement more than a single genre, and the term has become a descriptor for fusing Nigerian sounds such as fújì, apala and highlife with an international flavour.

Flushed with cash and the creative and marketing resources of the world’s biggest record companies, the Lagos music scene looks very different from the way it did 10 years ago, when creatives huddled in cramped, dingy studios across the city. Today, signed Afrobeats artists have access to state-of-the-art studios within record label offices in the expensive neighbourhoods of Lekki, Ikoyi and Victoria Island.

The result has been twofold. At the top of the industry, there’s never been a better time to be a Nigerian artist. The singer Ayra Starr is expected to appear on Good Feelings, a track on Coldplay’s new album, Moon Music – already confirmed to feature We Pray, which Burna Boy guests on.

Shallipopi – a recent breakout star – is hanging out with the American rapper Future. Young musicians in Lagos can now dream of filling out Madison Square Garden like Burna Boy and Davido; they can picture themselves on Times Square billboards, and in global brand campaigns.

Nearly 70% of Nigeria’s population of 229 million are under 30. But inflation is running at 34% and an estimated 87 million Nigerians live below the poverty line. A music career – which was traditionally seen as an inferior endeavour by society – has become an attractive way for young people to escape poverty. Global success has only intensified that desire.

On the surface, it seems all one needs is a mic, talent and a dream. Advancements in technology and the rise of social media offered to democratise the creative process and provide a seamless distribution of songs, with streaming platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify now available worldwide.

“I use Twitter, TikTok, Instagram ads,” says AfroReekAH, an unsigned young musician who lives between Lagos and Enugu, a city in south-east Nigeria. “To get listeners, I also use Spotify, Audiomack, Apple Music, and then pitch for editorial playlists on all these streaming services,” she says.

On any day in Lagos, you can find AfroReekAH – and many hopefuls like her – sharing song links on social media, while seeking spaces within the city to perform or at the very least have their music played at gatherings. During the week, they visit bars like Bogobiri House, which are known for their Thursday open mics.

Another favourite spot for emerging artists is Obi’s House, a Monday night club-like gathering, where members of the industry network and party. On the weekends, parties such as Raveolution and Group Therapy at underground pop-up spaces offer opportunities to hear experimental music.

But as Afrobeats continues to grow its audience abroad, new challenges have emerged at home. Starting a career with access to the industry and its infrastructure has never been harder. Investment by the major record labels has recalibrated the economics of the local industry: every service across the chain of creating and marketing music has increased in price, creating a steep barrier of entry for new talents.