In this post Tempoonline.com.ng chronicles a list of top 10 rated artists in Nigeria 2023 as against our list of top performers in 2022, This list is entirely a review from their performance so far in 2023, this performance index includes list of albums, EPs and hottest songs toping charts and streaming channels
The topic of ” top 10 rated artist in Nigeria 2023″ is a controversial one and it’s often a problem tracking performance of the top 10 rated artist in Nigeria without bias.
Nigerian music industry is one of the biggest and fastest-growing music industries in the world currently. There are hundreds to thousands of musicians in the country both popular and upcoming artists.
The competition in the Nigerian music industry is massive; it is very difficult to single-handedly pick any of the musicians as the best at the moment. After several research and findings, I present to you the best musician in Nigeria as of 2023
Top 10 rated artists in Nigeria 2023
1. Asake
Asake is one of the most popular and most successful music artists in Nigeria as of 2023. He came into limelight after he was signed to popular Nigerian record label YBNL Nation.
As soon as he was signed, he began to drop several hit singles, and chart-topping albums.
Even though he is new in the game he has achieved a lot in both feature and solo songs. Since the publication of his album in September 2022, no artist has had a bigger proportion of tracks on Spotify’s “Top 50 Nigeria” playlist than Asake, that’s why he is the best musician in Nigeria.
Asake crowned Artiste of the Year by Audiomack in 2022, he recently sold out the famous 02 Academy Brixton.
Burna Boy is a popular Nigerian musician that is known for his back-to-back singles and chart-topping albums not just in Nigeria but globally.
After he dropped Ye, the Grammy-winning artist has set the standard for afrobeats in the global stage.
Burna Boy is the first African act to obtain a gold-certified record in France, and sell out the 21,000-capacity State Farm Arena in Atlanta, USA.
He is the first African artist to get RIAA certifications for songs from three different albums.
Burna Boy sold out the 13,000-capacity 3 Arena in Dublin, Ireland, twice. 15,000-capacity Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland, including 16,000-capacity Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
3. Davido
Davido is a popular American-born Nigerian artist, he had his breakthrough in the Nigerian music industry over a decade ago.
Davido is the first African artist with over a million hashtagged posts on Facebook, Davido was featured on a FIFA World Cup soundtrack before performing in the Qatar-held closing ceremony of the tournament.
Davido has dropped several hit singles and chart-topping albums, which gave him the opportunity to win several Awards both in Nigeria and on the international stage.
4. Wizkid
Popular Nigerian music star, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun is popularly known for a stage name ‘Wizkid’, was born on the 16th of July,1990 in Surulere, Lagos.
He began his musical career in 2011 at 11. OJB Jezreel recorded his first song including one 7 track album as Lil Prinz.
Wizkid dropped his first hit single ‘Holla at Your Boy’ in 2010 before his first studio album ‘Superstar’ in 2011. Over the years, Wizkid has successfully secured several International collaborations with several artists like Drake, Chris Brown, Akon, Beyonce, Justin Bieber,, Angelique Kidjo, Major Lazer, Trey Songz Calvin Harris, Normani, and others.
5. Rema
Rema is the popular musician that had his breakthrough in the Nigerian music industry after he was signed into popular Nigerian music record label Marvin Records.
Rema’s megahit “Calm Down ft. Selena Gomez” recently surpassing Ckay’s Love Nwantinti Remix as the country’s most-viewed music video on YouTube,
Asides Burna Boy, he is the fast-rising superstar and the only African artist with a gold-certified album in France.
Rema was picked as one of three performers for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game halftime performance.
Rema’s “Rave & Roses” album and other music projects generate billions of plays across all digital streaming platforms, establishing him as one of the best musicians in Nigeria in 2023.
6. Kizz Daniel
Kizz Daniel is among the popular musicians in Nigeria currently his full name is Oluwatobiloba Daniel Anidugbe. He was popularly known as Kiss Daniel before he changed to Kizz Daniel I’ll simply refer to him as the King of Back-2-Back hit.
Kizz Daniel is the CEO and founder of “Fly Boy Inc ” a popular record label in Nigeria.
Kiss Daniel has been active in the Nigerian music industry for years, won several music awards, by dropped several music projects since he came into limelight in 2013 with his popular hit single Woju.
7. Fireboy
Fireboy makes it to this list in 2023 and he is currently one of the best musicians in Nigeria over the years and currently his full name is Adedamola Oyinlola Adefolahan, but popularly or professionally known as Fireboy DML. He came into limelight immediately when he was signed into YBNL Nation, a popular record label that was owned and operated by Nigerian rapper Olamide. Fireboy’s first studio album Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps was released in 2019.
Over the years fire boy has been dropping back-to-back hit singles, including EPs and albums.
He became so popular in the international scene when he secured a collaboration with Ed Sheeran in the remix of Peru. This single has generated billions of streams across all the available audio streaming platforms like Spotify, Audiomack, Apple Music and others.
8. Ayra Starr
Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe is professionally known as Ayra Starr. She is a Nigerian artist. After going viral several social media platforms including Instagram.
In 2019, Ayra Star posted her first song on her page. This brought her to the attention of Don Jazzy, before she was signed to Mavin Records, a popular music record label that was owned and operated by Don Jazzy. Ayra Starr’s rose to fame in 2021 with her debut E.P. and the massively popular single “Away”.
Currently, Ayra Starr is one of the best and popular musicians in Nigeria, she recently won the best female artist in Nigeria, at the last concluded Headies award.
Ayra Starr’s song was number four on the TurnTable Top 50 of Nigeria and seventeen on the U.S. Billboard’s Triller Global chart.
9. Portable
Portable is the last on my list for the best musician in Nigeria as of 2023. He is a popular street musician that made a breakthrough in the Nigerian music industry a few years ago after he secured a collaboration with Olamide and popular Nigerian dancer Poco Lee which gave him his first hit single Zazuu.
All Portable hit songs and Latest Naija Music are available for free on several streaming platforms.
Over the years, Portable has dropped several music projects including album, EP, with several hit singles. At the moment he is one of the best and most popular music artists not just in Nigeria but other countries of the world.
He recently-announced an international music tour which will happen less this year and early next year.
Top 10 rated artists in Nigeria 2022.
Michael Adebayo is professionally known as Ruger makes no.1 on list of top 10 rated artist in Nigeria 2021, a Nigerian talented singer, hails from Lagos. The singer came into the limelight on January 2021, after been signed into Jonzing Records
The singer has been developing and evolving behind the scenes for about a year and was officially unveiled by D’Prince’s Jonzing World record . Ruger made his first song on January 20th 2021, at Jonzing Records on this jam tagged ”One Shirt” featuring Rema and D Prince, which was a massive hit, enjoyed and accepted by his music fans.Ruger accompanied the “One shirt” single with an EP he tittled ” Pandemic the EP” that was released on 12th of March 2021,the EP came with hits like Bounce, Abu Dhabi, Bow, Monalisa, yekpa and Ruger.
9.Buju
Buju is a Nigerian singer also known as Buju to your ears,
His real name is Daniel Benson though he’s popularly known as Buju
Many people got interested to Buju’s music after the release of “Spiritual” featuring Zlatan in 2019,
Since then he has been on an upward trajectory
Buju started his career as a Soundcloud artiste but it didn’t take long for Nigerians to discover him on the popular freemium streaming platform.
However, he’s currently signed to Aristokrat Records, the Grammy Producing label that also housed Burna Boy.
Buju has officially released the following hit tracks.
A day in Lagos, Aje, Catch a Vibe were released in 2018, Buju in 2019 came through with Balance it, L’enu, Spiritual Featuring Zlatan,
Commander and L’enu Remix Featuring Burna boy were released in 2020.
Buju has released a couple of hit tracks in 2021 listed below: Your body featuring Basketmouth, Confident,
Testimony, Feeling, Outside, Peru featuring Fireboy DML.
8.Ladipoe
Ladipo Eso popularly known as Ladipoe is a Nigerian musician. On 28 February 2017, Ladipoe signed a record deal with Mavin Records. He rose to prominence with the song “Feel Alright” where he got featured by SDC “Show Dem Camp”. He also released a new single “Jaiye” in March 2019 before dropping the hit song, “Know You” featuring Nigerian Joromi singer, Simi. He is also a member of the Nigerian supergroup Collectiv3.
Ladipoe was the first rapper to be signed to Mavin Records since re-branding in 2012 from Mo’Hits. Poe recorded his first single under the label “Man Already” produced by Altims. Poe is inspired by the Slum Village, Lupe and Little Brother.
His 2021 single, “Feeling” which featured Buju peaked at number one of the TurnTable Top 50 chart on 3 occasions. He performed “Feeling” at the opening show of the sixth season of Big Brother Naija.
Ladipoe released his hit single Know you featuring Simi in 2020, this year we’ve enjoyed good tunes from ladipoe, Rap Messiah and feeling featuring Buju were released in 2021.
7.Blaqbonez
Emeka Akumefule (born 29 January 1996), known professionally as Blaqbonez, is a Nigerian rapper signed to 100 Crowns, which is an imprint of Chocolate City. In 2019, he was profiled by The New York Times as one of the new guards of Nigerian music. He is widely known for his controversial self-proclaimed status as the “Best Rapper in Africa” (abbreviated as “BRIA”), which became the most talked about topic in the Nigerian hip hop space between July and September 2019.
Blaqbonez started exploring his rap skills very early, and at 16, came 1st out of over 3000 rappers in Nigeria, who participated in Terry tha Rapman’s Zombie competition. As a result, he and was featured on Terry’s album World Domination alongside Olamide, Vector (rapper), Mode 9, Spellz which was released in 2012. Five years later, Blaqbonez featured Terry on one of his projects. He emerged 1st runner-up in Vector (rapper)’s king kong competition, won the Rhythm fm Freestyle Fury and became RhythmFm’s artiste of the month, became the Hennessy Vs class captain, part of the Soundcity blast cypher, also released his much talked about mixtape CTAT “Cssette Tapes and Tvs” grossing over 60,000 engagements in streams and downloads, which is his third mixtape, following hip-hop in blaq and the “unfinished EP”.
Blaqbonez released his eighth EP Bad Boy Blaq on 31 August 2018.It was released as part of the L.A.M.B project, a series of three hip hop albums that attempts to reawaken Nigerian hip hop. Bad Boy Blaq was executively produced by M.I Abaga and released through 100 Crowns.
Blaqbonez released his ninth EP Mr. Boombastic on 25 October 2019. A day before the release of the EP, Blaqbonez released the promotional single “Jesus Is Black (Letter to Kanye West).
In 2021 Blaqbonez has released the following hits, Traffic after traffic feat. Blaqbonez Bling feat.Amaarae and Buju Fendi, Sex over love feat.Nasty C,Laycon and Joeboy, BBC feat.Tiwa Savage and more.
6.Tems
Temilade Openiyi (born 11 June 1995), better known by her stage name Tems, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and record producer.
In 2018, Tems recorded “Mr Rebel”, a song of her own composition. In August 2019, she released the single “Try Me” which became a hit track, 25 September 2020, Tems released her debut extended play For Broken Ears which contain several tracks and her single “Damages” from her For Broken Ears EP became another follow up hit to “Try Me”, peaking at number six on the then-newly launched TurnTable Top 50.
On 2 September 2021, it was announced on billboards in Lagos that Tems was set to feature on rapper Drake’s Certified Lover Boy album. her collaboration with Drake on the song “Fountains” earned her her second Billboard Hot 100 entry debuting at number 26.
On 15 September 2021, Tems released her second extended play titled If Orange Was a Place, which has the single “Crazy Tings” and other hit tracks.
5.Ayra Starr
Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe (born 14 June 2002), known professionally as Ayra Starr, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and model.
earlier in 2021, Ayra Starr achieved mainstream recognition with her eponymous debut extended play and its hit track “Away” which peaked at number four on Nigeria’s TurnTable Top 50 and at number 17 on US Billboard Top Triller Global, paving the way for the release of her first full-length studio album, 19 & Dangerous in August 2021. Preceded by the single “Bloody Samaritan”, the album has been met with favorable critical reception. Ayra Starr debuted on Pandora Predictions chart, and on 28 August 2021, she ranked number two on the Billboard Next Big Sound chart.
Although musically diverse, Ayra Starr’s sound has predominantly been categorized as Afropop and R&B. Her voice has been described in the media as “silky”, “cozy”, “delicate”, “sturdy”, “arresting” and “soulful”, with music critics noting the dynamic nature of her range and emotional delivery.
4.Bella Shmurda.
Ahmed Abiola Akinbiyi Lawal (born 27 January 1996), known professionally as Bella Shmurda, is a Nigerian singer and songwrite. He rose to prominence with the release of the song “Vision 2020”, and a follow up remix which featured Nigeria rapper Olamide.
He released several hit songs in 2020, some which featured top musicians, one of which is “Cash App” featuring Zlatan. He was nominated for the Headies Award for the next rated in 2020.
Bella has a deal with his record company that is set to end in 2022. Bella Shmurda had been engaged in the release, publishing, distribution, and marketing of songs and videos.
Bella Shmurda has released a good number of hits in 2021 which includes, So cold, desire, party next door, Far away etc.
3.Zinoleesky
Oniyide Azeez popularly known as Zinoleesky is a Nigerian musician and songwriter. Zinoleesky was born on 21st November 1995 in Lagos State. Zinoleesky is popularly for rejecting signing to Davido‘s Davido Music World (DMW) music label for Naira Marley‘s Malian Records.
Zinoleesky’s journey into the music industry started at a very young age. However, he got inspired to keep pursuing his career in music after he was followed by popular Nigerian musician Kizz Daniel on Instagram after a rap video.
Zinoleesky so far has released a bunch of musics since coming to the limelight. Some of Zinolesky songs are;
Money, Popo, Aje, Caro feat Naira Marley, Who Knows, Vanessa, Ole, Fame.
2.Ckay
Nigeria music star Ckay who’s real name is Chukwuka Ekeani , is a producer/artiste signed under Chocolate City Music,is an indigene of Anambra State but was born in Kaduna to to Dr. & Mrs Ekweani is an indigene of Anambra State but was born in Kaduna to to Dr. & Mrs Ekweani.
Ckay found his love for music at 7 through his father who was a choir coordinator at the church,He began producing & writing music at age 13,In 2014, Ckay relocated to Lagos and began working with Chocolate City Music as a production intern in early 2015.
6. Later in the same year he got signed to Loopy Music which later merged with Chocolate City when MI became the C.E.O.
He made his production debut with “Third Mainland Bridge” which featured MI & Moti Cakes on the TICBN vol. 1 album.
He was also featured by MI on “The box” with Pryse-Illegal Music 3.
In August 2016, Ckay was officially signed as an artist with Chocolate City music. His first official single titled ‘Nkechi Turn Up’ was also released in the same year.
Ckay has achieved many notable works worthy of mentions, his 2018 single, “Container” received massive acceptance from listeners. His other notable songs includes “Love Nwantiti“, “Gaddemit”, “Chinekeme”, “Last Call” and “Gmail” featuring DMW rapper, Dremo.
Ckay has been a hot artist in 2021, he has released to mention but a few Felony, Skoin Skoin, Show my side, Isabella, jeje de whine etc.
1.Omah Lay
Stanley Omah Didia popularly known as Omah Lay is a boy from Port Harcourt Rivers State who has announced his entries into the Nigerian music industry in 2019 with singles like Brother and Do Not Disturb. At the beginning of this year, Omah Lay was not popular but he had his breakthrough during the pandemic using digital platforms to stream his 2020 singles like You, and Bad Influence. His songs got over 10 million streams and he is on his way to becoming one of the biggest upcoming African act. His Get Layd EP which was released on 22nd March, 2020 had singles like Damn, LoLo, and Ye Ye Ye