The Nigerian Music industry is by market, consumption, and popularity the biggest music industry in Africa. Nigeria is home to a large number of music consumers with a diverse taste in music and this large market makes Nigeria the number one choice for international artistes aiming to get their music across the African continent.
Over the years, the interest of international artistes in the Nigerian music industry has increased significantly. Many famous American and UK artistes have collaborated with their Nigerian counterparts and have headline shows in the country. Similarly, Nigerian artistes have increased their efforts to break into the international market and get afrobeat to the world. However, there has been a disparity in the level of penetration. While there’s no gainsaying that foreign music is a prominent part of Nigerian music consumption and many famous artistes have millions of fans in Nigeria, the same cannot be said for Nigerian artistes abroad.
2020 has been a huge year for the Nigerian music industry. The big names in the industry dazzled fans with new music and the new kids on the block registered their presence in the musical landscape. 2020 was the year Nigerian music ruled the airwaves and also consolidated Nigeria’s position as Africa’s entertainment powerhouse. 2020 was a huge year for Nigerian artistes both locally and internationally, and the same can be said for foreign music in Nigeria. Despite the huge strides that the Nigerian music industry recorded in 2020, Nigerian music still had to share the spoils of the airwaves with foreign music which retained its influence within the Nigerian music space.
2020 saw foreign artistes get a chunk of airplay that their Nigerian counterparts would be dreamingly hoping to get abroad. While Nigerian consumers stream foreign music to keep up with the international music industry, Nigerian radio and TV stations spent a significant amount of time playing foreign music in what can be assumed to be a reflection of the local appetite for foreign music.
The following data shows the number of airplay that foreign music enjoyed on the Nigerian TV and Radio stations in 2020.
This graph shows the number of entries by international artistes in the 24 weeks of Top Airplay Chart, a chart of the most-heard songs on radio in Nigeria. The average of 15 entries in a week shows that for every 2.3 local songs by local artistes played on radio, one song by an international artiste follows. It is interesting to note that on the week of August 24, 2020, a record 24 songs by international artistes appeared on the chart.
This graph shows the number of entries by international entries in the 15 weeks of TV Top Songs Chart, a chart of the most-heard songs on TV in Nigeria. The average of 13.6 entries in a week shows that for every 2.57 songs by local artistes played on TV, one song by an international artiste follows. Further look at the Top Streaming Chart, a chart of the most-streamed songs on freemium streaming platforms in Nigeria, shows that a song by a foreign artiste has never peaked in the top ten of the chart. This is in contrast to the Top Airplay Chart that has seen Master KG’s “Jerusalema (Remix)” with Nomcebo Zikode & Burna Boy peak at No. 2, Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later” featuring Lil Durk peaked at No. 8, Ariana Grande’s “positions” peaked at No. 6 and Sam Smith’s “My Oasis” at No. 9.
The TV Top Song Chart has seen a number of top ten songs by international artistes including a No. 1 in Beyonce’s “ALREADY” featuring Shatta Wale & Major Lazer, Master KG’s “Jerusalema (Remix)” with Nomcebo Zikode & Burna Boy peaked at No. 5, Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later” featuring Lil Durk peaked at No. 4, Koffe’s “Lockdown” at No. 4, Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” peaked at No. 5, Pa Salieu’s “My Family” featuring Backroad Gee at No. 5 and WSTRN’s “Never Find” peaked at No. 6.
The TurnTable Top 50, an all-encompassing chart that combines the three major metrics of music consumption in Nigeria (radio + TV + Streaming) was launched on the November 9, 2020. The purpose of the title was to create a chart that would accurately reflect what’s popular in Nigeria and the consumption pattern across the three major platforms.
The chart has seen a number of entries by international artistes led by Drake and Ariana Grande. “Laugh Now Cry Later” has peaked at No. 19 on the chart while “positions” has peaked at No. 22 on the chart. Both songs have been able to reach this height on the chart off of radio airplay and TV airplay in the country. Others such as Internet Money & Gunna’s “Lemonade” featuring Don Tolliver & NAV, Shawn Mendes & Justin Bieber’s “Monsters” and “WAP’’ have also entered chart largely due to airplay on radio and TV. For context, no song by a Nigerian artiste as the lead has entered the Billboard Hot 100 while the UK Official Top 100 have mainly seen Nigerian artistes appear as featured artistes on “One Dance,” “Own It,” and “Location.” (D’Banj’s “Oliver Twist” did debut at No. 13 on the chart in 2012).
The above data is a testament to why foreign artistes have retained their grip on their international fans in Nigeria and Africa. The ability of foreign artistes to have their songs and videos on Nigerian airwaves without having to lobby radio and TV stations or grease the right palms proves their international reach and influence.
Penetrating the international music market would require that Nigerian artistes get more international airplay. The more Nigerian music begins to become a regular sound on international Radio and TV music stations, the faster the goal of taking afrobeat to the world can be attained. In any case, the foreign airplay figures illustrate the wide gap that Nigerian artistes have to bridge to attain the international relevance they desire.