Adedokun Waliyu 
With a few days to the end of 2022 and new tunes being released; this year, choosing a favourite Nigerian artiste is tough.
Because while one of your favourites was still on repeat, another was releasing a song to steal the top spot on your playlist.
In 2022, Nigerian musicians put Afrobeats on the world map and hopped massively on Amapiano tunes to create the Afropiano genre. This brought about notable collaborations and chart-topping albums
In no particular order and with rankings from Spotify, Boomplay, Apple Music and other streaming platforms, PREMIUM TIMES brings you the top artistes who brought the heat in 2022.
Asake
It is undeniable that YBNL’s signee Ahmed Ololade popularly known as Asake dominated the radio waves and became an Internet sensation with his back-to-back hits this year.
The breakout star came hot with a different style and backup choristers you won’t deny hearing. With his new class, he released hot tracks, including Sungba’, ‘Peace Be Unto You
And “Terminator” at the beginning of the year.
From ‘Omo ope’ to ‘Loaded’, the singer also had an incredible run in 2022. His ‘Sungba Remix” featuring Burna Boy, was the No. 7 US Afrobeats Songs on Billboard.
His debut Album ‘Mr. Money with the Vibe’ included both new and previous songs that still sit amongst the top 10 albums this year, and his incredible success led him to host his first show this December.
He began with the hit track and now anthem ‘Last Last’ and went ahead to release a sixth studio album, ‘Love, Damini’, which gained massive global reception.
Burna Boy
With songs like ‘Its Plenty’ and ‘For my hand’ featuring Ed Sheeran, the 31-year-old artiste drew more attention to his new sounds and is touring the world while breaking milestones on international records.
Kizz Daniel
Seven years after his hit release ‘Woju’, Daniel Anidugbo popularly known as Kiss Daniel, dominated the streaming channels with hot singles ‘Buga’ and ‘Cough’ this year.
The singer, known to have no bad songs, got every age learning and doing the dance routine to ‘Buga’.
This hit song also took him to the world stage to perform for fans at the world cup after expressing his desire to do so on the internet.
Rema
Divine Ikubor utilised most of his time during the ASUU strike to give us one hit song at the beginning of the year.
The single ‘Calm down’ drew millions of hearts as the romantic song slowly turned into an anthem released in February. As of press time, this song has garnered over 299m views on YouTube.
This same song drew so many numbers following the remix in August with United States pop star Selena Gomez and won him a Gold certification in the United States. The remix has over 190m views on YouTube.
He also released his debut album ‘Rave and Roses’ in March through Jonzing world and Mavins containing hit songs like ‘Soundgasm’ and Time and affection. He also featured international artists Chris brown and 6lack.
Arya Starr
Oyinkansola Aderibigbe, popularly known as Arya Starr, took her game to another level following the release of Ase and Rush on the deluxe of her 19 and Dangerous Album.
Her single Rush quickly rose to anthem status as Tiktokers adopted it to spread their creativity.
The 20-year-old star also had a run with Collaborations, including Magixx hit single ‘love don’t cost a dime’, and with other artists, including Wizkid, Iyanya, Lojay and Ckay.
Wizkid
Wizkid had a good year.
Despite the internet arguments about him losing his mojo, the 32-year -old artist, while still enjoying the success of his Made in Lagos debut, released his fifth studio album ‘More love, Less ego.’
With his release ‘Bad to me, he got his fan base daring everyone and propagating his comeback.
Pheelz
Producer turned artiste, the 28-year-old responsible for producing hit songs from various artistes over the years began a stride as he came on BNXN track ‘Finesse’.
In August, he came up with the track, Electricity, where he featured Davido and also dominated the Tiktok scene.
Since then, he has been touring around for shows and performing these songs.
Johnny Drille
Thanks to the romantic crooner Johnny Drille with one single, he managed to unite and reconcile old relationships- ‘How are you my friend’ became the song for all ages as it got everyone reminiscing on the true meaning of Friendship.
Backed up by the unique voice of record label boss Don Jazzy, the song was quickly welcomed and propagated by netizens who use it to create a lot of content.
Mavins (All stars)
As the record label marked ten years of greatness, Mavins Records, led by Don Jazzy, released an all-stars album tagged ‘Chapter X’.
Before the release of the Album, the All-Stars team comprising Arya star, Johnny Drille, Bayanni, Boy Spice, Magixx, Rema, Crayon, and Bani released the mid-year hit song ‘Overloading’ in august.
Following closely at the celebration of the milestone, they released another top single, ‘Won da ma’
During the year, the mavins boss, Don jazzy, unveiled his artists and started releasing projects through them.
Blaqbonez
With his Unconventional release, the Young Preacher, Emeka Akumefule, came with the hit song Back In Uni.
The singer, known to sing and rap about his love escapades and possible consequences, dominated the charts with this single and also released his album ‘Young Preacher’.
Other Notable mentions
Other artistes, including Davido, Tems, Fireboy DML, Ruger, BNXN, and Ckay, also dominated in 2022.
While Tems dominated the international spotlight with features with Drake and Future, Johnny Drille dominated the hearts of Nigerians with ‘how are you, my friend.’
Tems, Fireboy and Ckay also shone brightly on the Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
Also, newbies Cater Efe and Austine De Bull added to the heat with unexpected hits ‘Machala’and ‘Shey you dey whine me ni’.
