‘Peru’ set a new record becoming the first song from a Nigerian artist to rank at #1 on the Afrobeats UK chart for four weeks in a row.
In December 2021, Nigerian singer Fireboy DML and English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran released ‘Peru’. In 2019, Beyonce released The Lion King: The Gift album with Naija influence that featured artists such as Burna Boy, Mr Eazi, Wizkid, P2J, Yemi Alade, Maleek Berry, Tiwa Savage, and Shatta Wale. The rapid growth of the West African sound has seen some global artists like Beyonce jump on the trend. Over the years,Naija has evolved and gone global thanks to new generation artists who’ve adopted and made it their own.
For instance, when referring to gospel music, Hip-hop and Afro beats songs from Nigeria, then they all take the prefix ‘Naija’. Naija incorporates several different genres that include Afro beats, gospel, rap and RnB among others. It dates back to the 1960s with some of its pioneers being famous Nigerian musician Fela Kuti and Olando Julius Ekemode. It is used to describe songs that have beats and sounds borrowed from local Nigerian ethnic groups such Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. Naija music refers to songs from West Africa, specifically Nigeria.
