When we talk about legends of Nigeria music, people are always quick to mention Tuface or maybe d'banj....well


This morning, as an upcoming artiste I decided to make a search about sony music, and you know how one search leads to another, I found out about some African artiste I never know about signed to Sony music even before wizkid and davido, way back to as of 2005. one of the artiste that caught my attention is SOMI never heard of her before, signed to sony music, has an entire album on Lagos Nigeria! yep, that's right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XwGevmSXsE

But after somi, I moved on and landed on Nneka. Born in Warri. Signed to Sony Music, I knew Nneka back then, can't remember the year with her Hit song "Heartbeat". the video on youtube tho was published 25th October 2009 and has over 14 million views which by the way is almost an impossible height to reach by a Nigerian song released in 2009. tho she had a german mother, this girl grew in Nigeria and is full of the Naija energy, I just kept going from website to website, video to video on her. even thinking of downloading her albums.

Her song "Heartbeat" is, of course, her biggest hit, and permit me to say it is arguably the biggest song by a Nigerian recognised internationally, I know a lot of our recent artiste are getting recognised worldwide and we obviously know that but how big Nneka was and how big the song heartbeat was, no Nigerian can actually truly tell because Nneka kind of music was not really accepted in Nigeria, but was well accepted in most part of the world. it is quite uncertain how big Nneka is which includes her songs. just also like we don't know how big some international artiste are, for example, somi. somi has hit no .1 on the US charts before and debuted on no. 2 on Billboard hot 100. maybe it's just me tho.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ivg3J3h5Ps
Heartbeat has so many remixes, remake and samples, and was even sampled by drake on I'm ready for you before being sampled on Rita Ora R.I.P. ft. Tinie Tempah and most of them are done internationally I mean outside Africa. yep, so Nneka had met and done something with drake way back before wizkid. the song had award nominations both in Nigeria and across the borders. but enough of heartbeat. she had other songs too that most of us probably don't know, cos again, she was not really listened to in Nigeria, ironically she spoke about Nigeria in most of her songs, and use Igbo and she even does have a song funny performed in pidgin English and that particular song was a soundtrack on Fifa 2010. I can't even imagine playing a soccer game and the next song that plays is in pidgin English.

she has also worked with many other international artists including Nas as she did the remix of heartbeat with him. and has performed in top shows around the world and invited for interviews all over the world. recorded a song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa called "Viva Africa".
The truth is, Nneka is a legend, there is nothing more to proof, her album Concrete Jungle was on billboard chart. her very first album Victim of Truth was declared "the year’s most criminally overlooked album", comparing it favourably to 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'

oh and I forgot! she also raps!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nneka_(singer)

what I love about her is her lyrics.........she uses it well in her songs