Rollingstone, a globally renowned music publication platform, has released its list of the top 200 pop singers, with two Nigerian artists making the cut.
Rollingstone published a list of the top 200 singers of all time on January 1, 2022, and Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and Afrobeats icon Burna Boy both made the list.
Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the Afrobeat icon and musical deity in Africa, was ranked 188th. According to Rolling Stone, Fela Kuti is:
"Fela Kuti’s iconic songs of the 1970s and 1980s are sprawling orchestral instrumentals, an innovative swirl of African highlife, American soul, and jazz. Through his music, he shared an anti-colonialist, Pan-African vision and challenged Nigeria’s corrupt military government, which routinely subjected him and those around him to immense harm. Yet it wasn’t just Fela’s lyrical rebellion that makes him so important — it’s the way his voice carried his vision; the way he sang, his tone commanding and direct, plain and firm. His stern but conversational melodies made his movement more accessible. On 1986’s “Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense,” where he tackles whitewashed education and failed governments, he coos, “I say, I sing, I beg everyone to join my song.” And he performed in such a way that they could"
Rollingstone described Burna Boy as :
"A Nigerian cultural giant, Burna Boy is the ambassador of Afrobeats as a global movement that can feel equally at home climbing the European charts and maintaining a subtle emotional connection with past African genres like highlife. Burna’s voice is sweet like caramel, but it can also soar on slickly produced tracks like his recent megahit “Last Last,” or the 2019 gem “Anybody,” amped up by deep bass accents and insanely sophisticated polyrhythms. His vocal lines find inspiration in everything from hip-hop and R&B to hooky pop and dancehall — the world is his playground"
The inclusion of Fela and Burna Boy exemplifies the success and impact of various eras of Nigerian music in Africa and around the world.
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