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Entertainment and Lifestyle

Nigerian artists make Billboard’s Social 50 on back of #Endsars

  • PublishedNovember 4, 2020

Scores of Nigerian artists were able to reach Billboard’s Social 50 chart at the end of October courtesy of the #Enddsars protests that engulfed the oil rich nation lately.

The Social 50 is powered by data tracked by music analytics company Next Big Sound and ranks the most popular artists on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Wikipedia. The chart’s methodology blends weekly additions of friends/fans/followers with artist page views and engagement. Its latest tracking period ended Oct. 15.

The social 50 chart captured high-life singer Adekunle Gold, at No. 8.

Many of Gold’s tweets in the Oct. 9-15 tracking week referenced #EndSARS, with the singer, one of the Nigerian music industry’s most vocal supporters of the movement. “Their plans are failing,” he tweeted Oct. 15 in his most-engaged-with post of the week, one that earned over 50,000 re-tweets and over 50,000 favourites. “NO ONE CAN INTIMIDATE THIS PHONE PRESSING GENERATION!”

In all, Gold, whose appearance on the Social 50 at No. 8 is also his chart début, saw 861,000 reactions on his Twitter, was mentioned 80,000 times and earned 57,000 new followers, according to Next Big Sound.

Gold is one of many Nigerian artists voicing their support for the country’s #EndSARS movement. The protest decries Nigeria’s state-run Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a unit of the country’s police force, speaking out against alleged police brutality stemming from the organization.

Joining Gold on the Social 50 from Nigeria is Falz , who  at No. 11 had 613,000 Twitter reactions and 265,000 mentions.

During the Social 50’s tracking week, on Oct. 11, the Nigerian government announced it would be dissolving SARS; however, protests continued, with protesters pointing out that many of the unit’s officers would still be reassigned and part of the police force, while others did not believe that the dissolution would actually occur.

 Burna Boy  stood at No. 14 with 596,000 reactions and 225,000 mentions.  Don Jazzy followed at No. 17 with 521,000 reactions and  64,000 mentions, while WizKid stood at No. 15 and had 503,000 reactions with 425,000 mentions. Banky W. followed at No. 28 with 342,000 reactions and 55,000 mentions. Others were Cuppy, who at No. 34 garnered 200,000 reaction and 97,000 mentions.  Simi at No. 39 had 270,000 reactions and 20,000 mentions, while Davido at No. 50 mustered 127,000 new followers.

Written By
Africh Royale

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