100 years of pop music in Nigeria: what shaped four eras

Posted on Mon 02 January 2023 in Nigeria • Tagged with Afrobeats, music, Jùjú, Yoruba, Tunde King, HighLife, pidgin. Victor Olaiya, Afrobeat, Fela Kuti, Fela, Shina Peters, Onyeka Onwenu, Naija hip hop, Lagbaja, Asa, Davido, Wizkid, BurnaBoy, Tems

Nigerian musician Fela Kuti and his band in Harlem, New York, 1989. Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images

Chijioke Ngobili, University of Nigeria

The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early months of 2020 shut down nearly all physical and social human activities. For musical practice this meant near death …


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From Nigeria to the world: Afrobeats is having a global moment

Posted on Thu 21 April 2022 in Nigeria • Tagged with Afrobeats, Entertainment, Music, Fela, Grammys, Femi Kuti, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido, Yemi Alade, Tems, CKay, Pheelz, Buju, TikTok, Instagram

Tems performs in London in 2021. Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage

Garhe Osiebe, Rhodes University

Another Grammy Awards season and there is a growing list of African nominees. For African music enthusiasts, it is heartwarming that recognition is being accorded to practitioners in the Afrobeats space.

Afrobeat and Afrobeats, although …


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