One of the major highlights of the Nigerian music industry in the year 2020 relates to the quality of the breakout stars this year. Unlike previous years where most of the break out stars are mainly Pop Artistes, 2020 witnessed the rise of Rappers, Alte Artistes and Afro RnB singers.
The usual fast and high tempo songs that ruled the clubs and airwaves and seemed like the surest and fastest means to stardom didn’t exactly cut it for music listeners this year. Nigerians are becoming more conscious of the lyrics in the songs and the melody unlike in the past where a great beat and some mumbling here and there couched as vibes would pass as a great track to Nigerians. The mindset that a song had to be a club song for it to “blow” is dying down slowly. Some of the biggest hits this year are not fast-tempoed songs e.g Zoom, Haba, Damn.
Breakout Artistes like Omah Lay, Laycon, Yusuf Kanbai, Oxlade, Fireboy DML, PsychoYp, Blaqbonez, Cheque, among others are some of the new breed of artistes doing really good with their singles in term of production, lyrics and delivery.
The RnB artistes like Wani, Johnny Drille and Alte Artistes like Odunsi, Santi, DRB LasGidi, Amma Rae and Lady Donli also had a very wonderful year that witnessed more mainstream acceptance of their music. Even the Legendary Wiz decided to go on the Slower Tempo kinda vibe on his much anticipated ” Made in Lagos” album.
It seems like Nigerian Artistes are becoming more purposeful with their art and putting more efforts into making good music as attention from all over the world is shifting to AfroBeats. We look forward to how far this trend goes and sincerely hope this momentum is sustained, in order to ensure hardworking Artistes with actual talent get to the top-most and well-deserved position that they crave for, rather than the mediocrity displayed by top Artistes which we continue to celebrate in Nigeria.
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