The Women In Nigeria's Music Industry

The Nigerian entertainment music is mining ground full of talent, here is a list of some of the women holding it down and how they have fared on in the industry.

TIWA SAVAGE

This is one woman who is not new to controversial stories she is always the topic of conversation in the Nigeria social media, many regard her as the undisputed queen of Nigeria music. Tiwatope Savage-Balogun popularly known as Tiwa Savage has grown bounds and leaps since the release of her first hit song kelekele. Most recent topic of debate was a video in which she was featured by Wizkid that was done in a somewhat romantic setting that caused a lot of buzz with people claiming that they expected more from her and others simply enjoying the show, her appearance in the video was really a factor due to the earlier incident months before the video involving her husband (or ex-husband), as their marital home was alleged to be on the rocks.

 

Also, Tiwa Savage was accused of promoting drug use after she featured in “codeine diet” a song by DJ Enimoney, that cause a lot of people calling for the song to be banned.

As you can see she is no stranger to controversies but the accolades and recognition she has gotten cannot be disputed she is one of the most talented artists out there and her awards show for it most recently winning collabo of the year with for her song “Ma lo” with Wizkid.

 

YEMI ALADE

Yemi Eberechi Alade known as Yemi Alade born on the 13 of March 1989 burst into the Nigerian seen with her monster hit “Johnny”, since then she has not looked back with shows round Africa and claiming multiple awards including winning Best Female as the Nigeria MTV base awards in 2016.

She has been a victim of a lot of criticism saying that her songs lack proper lyrics and it seems like she still trying to recreate “Johnny” and that she should diversify instead of sticking to one style.

It is undeniable that Yemi Alade is a top dog in the Nigeria entertainment industry and like she always says “there is still more to come”.

 

YEMI ALADE

One of most the underrated Nigerian female musician until quite recently after her “maradona” song dropped, the song really shot her to the limelight as it was received very well both home and abroad especially by South Africa, they seem to simply adore her over there.

Niniola Apata is got her first taste of the Nigeria music system came when she finished third runner-up on the sixth season of Project Fame West Africa. She released her debut song “ibadi” which got a lot of praise from fans and critics alike.

Niniola often describes her style of music as Afro-house a blend of Afro-beat and House music. One thing is for sure we are going to be enjoying more hits from her.

 

TENI

A lot of people have asked what is in the water in the Apata household because they seem to be producing stars. Teniola Apata born on 2 December 1993 is the younger sister of Niniola.

Teni can be referred to as the “love” of Nigerians due to her unique style and great singing voice since she dropped her sophomore song “fargin” it has been an upward progression and it seems like everything she touches turns to pure gold with songs like Askmaya, Case and Uyo meyo.

She was awarded “rookie of the year” for her performance, at The Headies award, as well as “Best new artist” at the 2018 Soundcity MVP Awards Festival. She was also featured on YouTube Music’s Trending Artist on the rise. Teni is quite truly an artist on the rise.

 

SIMI

The Lagos born star has intrigue fans with her beautiful voice and great lyrics for the past years and her ability to stick to her style of music still ride the waves of Nigerian’s music charts.

Simi also was known as Simi Ogunleye started out as a gospel artist but has since switched and released one of her first notable songs “tiff” that gained her a lot of recognition. One of her major breakthrough songs to the Nigeria music market was her song with Falz titled “Jamb question” a song with a mixture of comedy and music.

Quite recently she got married to her fellow singer Adekunle Gold is probably one of the “lowkey” weddings ever done by Nigerian entertainers and their relationship was said to be five years in the making.

It is expected that she would drop another album and stake her claim more as the queen of the alternative sound.

ASA

A list involving Nigeria’s top musicians cannot be complete without mentioning Asa, she seems like the pioneer of everything good about Nigeria music.

Born in Paris France but grew up in Lagos before returning back to France, Asa (pronounced Asha) took Nigeria’s music industry by storm with her self-titled album which was played all over Europe, Africa and Asia and even went ahead to win the prized French Constantin Award in 2008.

She has multiple platinum albums her first album featured hits like fire on the mountain and jailer, second titled “Beautiful imperfection” also featured hits like be my man. The last album dropped in 2014 - Bed of Stones with lead singles like Eyo, Satan be gone and dead again.

Been a while since we heard anything new from Asa but there is a lot of optimism that we have not heard the last.

 

SEYI SHAY

Deborah Oluwaseyi Joshua popularly known as Seyi Shay often regarded as the “Nigerian Rihanna” is a very expressive musician and needed no second introduction as she stormed the Nigerian scene with her no-nonsense attitude and is often a topic of the media because of her dress sense which she says she has no problem with.

 

Seyi Shay has had major hit songs most notably the one with Nigeria Afro-pop star Wizkid titled “crazy”. There is definitely more to come from her.

Popnable /Popnable Media