Chidi Okereke
Normally, a list like this will be 10 songs long, but Nigerian artistes put out so many great songs in 2017 that we had to stretch it to 20, to accommodate all that awesomeness. We thought about ranking in order of popularity, but because of the periods they were released, some were seemingly more popular at the end of the year, even though earlier released songs were hugely popular in their peak period. We have therefore settled on arranging in order of dates when they were released.
Enjoy, and share.
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If – Davido || Feb 17, 2017
Written and produced by Tekno, Davido’s first single in 2017 was also his biggest – in terms of sales, YouTube views (56.7million) and longevity on charts. The very catchy “30 billion for the account” line became pop-culture lingua and inspired his sold-out 30 Billion World Tour that berthed at the Eko Convention Center in December, 2017.
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Maradona – Niniola || Mar 2, 2017
Niniola definitely scored one of the biggest Afro-Pop singles of the year with Maradona, produced by Sarz. The infectious tune had party goers dancing like footballers about to dribble someone and established Niniola as a household name.
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Yawa – Tekno || Mar 22, 2017
If you say Tekno is the most gifted Nigerian act right now, many music heads will agree, while some will disagree. But if you say he is one of the biggest Nigerian acts in the last 4 years, it will be a consensus. Tekno Chinedu Miles has dropped fire after fire with one word titles, and his 2017 exploits began with Yawa, the beautiful song that threatens mayhem if ‘she’ leaves him. The song went on to be the most downloaded in March 2017, while the video went on to garner over 18 million views on YouTube.
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Come closer – Wizkid ft Drake || Mar 31, 2017
Come Closer is overall the biggest Nigerian song of 2017. Featuring Drake, it was released as the third single from Wizkid’s third studio album, or EP (as people like to call it) – Sounds from the Other Side. It got on charts around the world, including the UK Singles Chart, US R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Canadian Hot 100. The (first) video was released on the 6th of April 2017, and conspicuously did not feature Drake. A redux video was released on the 7th of July and, you guessed right, Drake wasn’t in it either. It still banged though, as people did not really care.
