Five artistes reaffirmed their status as bonafide superstars in 2017 and they are none other than Davido, Tiwa Savage, Wizkid, Olamide, and Tekno.
With several recognitions, both local and international under their belts, the fantastic five proved to be unstoppable in 2017.
Here is how.
Davido has had quite a year. The singer started 2017 by performing for 40,000 football fans, and he would go on to do this multiple times throughout the year.
In the same month, the singer made a major career move when he parted ways with his manager Kamal Ajiboye.
Davido went on to continue selling out shows. He later reunited with his first manager, Asa Asika, after sacking him over “financial misappropriation”.
In February, Davido’s song ‘If’ became the number one song in Africa.
On the international scene, the singer featured on the fifth studio album of Nigerian-American rapper, Wale. He recorded songs with Jay Sean, Rae Sremmurd, amongst others.
During the course of the year, Davido shared the stage on several occasions with international acts such as Diplo, Jidenna, among others.
His career took a brief halt when he lost a family member and two friends, some of which were so devastating that he cancelled shows.
The O.B.O bounced back with his ‘30 billion World and Africa Tour‘, selling out every show.
He won major international awards and was declared best worldwide act and best African act by MTV.
His award-winning streak isn’t over yet. The singer was recently nominated for Soundcity’s MVP awards.
Dremo and Mayorkun, two artistes signed to his self-owned label, DMV, equally garnered enough recognition this year.
Dremo’s ‘Fela’ shot him to the spotlight and Mayorkun, asides hitting millions of views on YouTube, sold out his Mayor of Lagos show.
Davido was feeling so lucky that he signed another act before the year ran out.
The singer also became the first Nigerian celebrity to have five million Instagram followers.
The chart-topper would be headlining his first concert in five years in December, in what is a perfect way to end a successful year.
Tiwa Savage surprised everyone this year, most especially her fans when she rose like a phoenix from the ashes of her marital crisis which played out in the public domain in 2016. In 2017, she couldn’t be stopped by anything or anyone.
With hundreds of thousands in attendance and watched by millions, Savage started her 2017 by performing at the One Lagos Fiesta.
The Mavin Records first lady performed at ESSENCE Black Women In Music, a Grammy award week event.
The singer performed at sold-out shows in London, New York, and Dubai. She later signed a partnership deal with Jay-Z’s ROC Nation.
Savage received rave reviews from the international music scene when in February, she was described as Nigeria’s Rihanna by Fat Joe, a prolific American rapper.
In May, the singer performed at the 2017 edition of Made in America festival.
Savage continued selling out shows, joining 2Baba to headline his Buck ‘n’ Wyld concert alongside Flavour.
In the latter part of the year when she released her much-anticipated body of work, ‘Sugarcane’, her biggest fans were international acts such as Coldplay.
Named on BBC’s list of 100 inspirational and innovative women, the award-winning season kicked off for the singer.
With a Mobo awards nomination in place, the singer clinched an award at AFRIMMA and also emerged AFRIMA‘s best worldwide act.
Just as the ‘All Over’ singer received her nomination for Soundcity’s MVP awards, she made MTV’s list of hottest songs of 2017.
Olamide joined Tiwa Savage to kick off the year with a performance to a mammoth crowd at the One Lagos Fiesta. And he continued in that vein for the rest of the year.
Barely halfway through the month of January, the singer’s sixth album, ‘Glory’, made the Billboard music charts.
Having had a good international start to the year, he went on to perform alongside fellow A-listers at the One Africa Music Fest in London, New York, and Dubai. He also joined fellow acts Wizkid and Davido to feature on Wale’s album ‘Shine’.
The rapper’s songs are known for evoking pop culture sayings that eventually go viral. But none went as viral as his single, ‘Wo‘, which he released in August.
So much so that Wizkid described it as the biggest Nigerian song of 2017.
On November 17, the artiste released his 17-track project entitled, ‘Lagos Nawa‘.
He later announced the fourth edition of his concert tagged ‘Olamide Live in Lagos: The Concert’ which held at the 25,000 capacity Teslim Balogun Stadium.
With recognition from YouTube and Google amongst others, the rapper received four nominations in Soundcity’s MVP awards.
He was also listed as one of the 20 artistes with the hottest songs in 2017.
Wizkid has maintained his unbeatable status this year, despite stiff competition.
The Starboy kicked off the year promising that he would release four mixtapes in 2017.
Why wouldn’t he be audacious? Wizkid was arguably the best Nigerian artiste of 2016, largely as a result of his award haul, Grammy nomination for his part in Drake’s album, a global tour, and a string of hit songs.
Early 2017, he signed a multi-album worldwide deal with RCA Records, under Sony Music International.
The singer went ahead to win an iHeart Radio Award for his collaboration on ‘One Dance’ with American rapper, Drake, and singer, Kyla.
Later in March, he released ‘Come Closer’, a collaboration with Canadian rapper, Drake, months after the song had leaked online.
Wizkid continued to penetrate deeper into the international music market.
Soon enough, ‘Come Closer’ became number one trending song on VEVO. The song also shot up to number 13 on Billboard’s ‘Twitter Top Tracks’ chart.
With an international album in view, Wizkid continued selling out shows in London, the US, and Dubai.
In May, he received seven Billboard Music Awards nominations for ‘One Dance’.
The song eventually won top streaming song, top R&B song, and top R&B collaboration. He also clinched his second BET award, winning the best international act category.
Wizkid 2.0
Wizkid released his first project under RCA Records, ‘Sounds From The Other Side‘ in July.
Chris Brown, Trey Songz, Ty Dolla Sign are some of the international artistes who featured on the EP.
SFTOS recorded an impressive debut on the Billboard music charts, sitting pretty on nine charts.
The Starboy was the August/September cover feature of The Economist’s culture series ‘What The World Is Listening To’.
He was named by Diplo, an American record producer, and disc jockey as being among the “Nigerians taking over with this new Afro-pop movement”.
The Nigerian superstar toured the US with Future, a hip-hop/trap star. He later released a joint single, ‘Every Time’, with the American star.
In September, the singer born Ayo Balogun joined the fray of music legends who have sold out the Royal Albert Hall in London.
And he continued winning.
Barely 24 hours after being nominated for two Mobo Awards, Wizkid earned a Soul Train Awards nomination for ‘Come Closer’.
The singer won two of the most prestigious categories at AFRIMA and in November, he was crowned best international act at the Mobo awards.
Having won the Future Awards Africa Prize For Young Person of the Year, it isn’t over just yet for the singer as he received three Soundcity MVP awards nominations.
Tekno is the golden boy who made sure to make his voice heard this year. Despite the many feuds that almost marred his year, the singer didn’t stop staying true to his culture.
The ‘Pana’ singer kicked off his 2017 by joining Africa’s biggest stars to share the stage at the One Africa Music Fest.
‘Pana’, although released in 2016, gained traction in 2017 and kept him atop charts on several occasions.
He produced Davido’s biggest song ‘If’ just as he was equally churning out hit songs like ‘Diana’.
2baba described him as one of the Nigerian artistes “pushing boundaries and taking Nigerian music to the next level”.
This is quite evident as his hits songs earned him a spot on MTV’s 20 hottest Nigerian songs of 2017.
Also, with the growing successes of Nigerian artistes in the US, Billboard said Tekno may be next in line to fly the flag on American soil.
The singer will be performing alongside American rapper, William Roberts II, better known as Rick Ross, this December.
Tekno earned nominations from the 2017 BET Awards, Mobos, The Future Awards, and AFRIMMA.
The singer-producer is presently working with Drake.
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With all analogy Wizkid was the most successful artist of 2017…