Time was when all one gets to hear in parties, discotheques, or night clubs was foreign music. It was chic and even considered fashionable to rock with music, especially of great American superstars like Michael Jackson, Brothers Johnson, Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool and The Gang, Dynasty, The Temptations, Brass Construction, New Edition, The Gap Band, Diana Ross, The Supremes, Shalamar, Lionel Richie, Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Boyz To Men, Usher Raymond, Akon, Jason Derulo, Akon, to mention but a few.
Nigerians loved these stars and idolised them.
It was also fashionable for music lovers, particularly the young ones to adopt lifestyles modelled after their favourite stars. They also tried to dress like them, while constantly following up on their progress by reading magazines like Ebony, Right On, etc -- American based publications that regularly had news about these music icons.
It was also fun to paste their living room walls with pictures and posters of these artistes who had such a gripping influence upon the young ones back in the days
But not anymore. That era seems long gone like the medieval stone age with barely any relics of the past manifesting in the style of music we see today.
And talking about music of today. Nigerian music is it! The attention of the world has shifted to the world's most populous black nation as her artistes have become the hottest items on the global music scene, churning hits after hits.
All of a sudden, the world is waking up to another brand of music simply known as 'afrobeats.'
Now, it's not as if this percussion-laden kind of beat from Africa haven't always existed. As a matter of fact, the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti was a chief proponent of the brand with localised beat accompanied with a generous dose of jazz.
Fela was so good with his kind of music that he was identified with it.
But it appears that the success of today's stars like Burna Boy, WizKid, Kizz Daniel, Davido, Fireboy DML, Asake, Ayra Starr, Rema, and a host of others stems from the fact that there's a conscious effort to modernise the beat and infuse elements of R & B, rock, reggae, calypso and even amapiano.
The result is a new kind of flavour that has caught on and spread so quickly that it is now considered the music of the now.
Now, it seems the power equation has changed with Nigerian stars not only winning millions of converts to their kind of music, but dominating charts even outside their immediate confines.
Then, the inroads they have made in influencing such top foreign artistes like Akon, Rick Ross, R.Kelly, Snoop Doggy Dog, Chris Brown, Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Cardi B, Selena Gomez and a growing list of chart-topping stars overseas has also helped them to make a bold statement about the growing popularity of Nigerian music.
In the last two years, the level of acceptance of Nigerian music has hit stratospheric proportions with even bigger prospects ahead.
Nigerian stars are rocking audiences from Africa to Europe, America, Asia at even in far-flung countries like Australia in Oceania.
They are breaking records in terms of listenership or viewership on streaming platforms and on YouTube, as well as winning awards.
The groundbreaking impact of Rema's "Calm Down" had been so profound as to recently fetch him MTV Music Video award.
At a time, Rema's hit song had been amongst America's highly respected Billboard Top 10 charts, even rising as far as the number 2.
Rema recently celebrated hitting the over one billion mark of active views of his music video --"Calm Down" -- on YouTube.
He is not the only one as Grammy award-winning stars like Tems, Wizkid and Burna Boy have also gained much international acclaim with hit songs attracting millions of views.
Artistes like Kizz Daniel and Ayra Starr with hits such as "Buga", and "Rush" have since surpassed the 100million views mark on YouTube with some of their compatriots like Tiwa Savage and Ruger with hits like "Somebody's Son", and "Bounce" respectively, closely following.
YouTube views, live streamings aside, the demand for afrobeats has made Nigerian artistes hotcakes especially at global events and concerts.
Three Nigerian stars -- Kizz Daniel, Rema and Davido performed at different stages of the last FIFA World Cup hosted by oil rich Qatar between November and December 2022.
The duo of Tems and Burna Boy have performed at the Staples Centre and the Madison Square Garden in New Your City at different times while Asake, Davido, WizKid and Burna Boy have at different times held jam-packed audiences at the famous 02 Arena in London, spellbound.
Tiwa Savage was amongst top stars like the legendary Lionel Richie and British band, Take That to thrill huge crowds during King Charles coronation a few months ago.
With the way things are going, it is likely that Nigerian stars will dominate the global music scene for a long time yet.
So long as the world hungers for the unique, funky African beats with a touch of indigenous lyrics and a fusion of R&B, rock, reggae, dancehall, or the amapiano, so long will Nigerians continue to be motivated, churning out hits after hits that will keep burning the chats globally.
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