Congrats Secretly Publishing’s Lady Donli on hitting 2 MILLION plays on her 2018 single, “Classic” ft Kida Kudz, which was released before her breakout album, Enjoy Your Life in 2019.
In January 2019, my friend Funmi came back from Nigeria and introduced me to artists from West Africa in the alté scene like Lady Donli, Amaarae, Santi, Odunsi, and Wavy The Creator, who are now signed to international deals and playing festivals around the world.
In 2019, before starting at Secretly Group, I was able to carve out a lane for afro-fusion and alternative African musicians on playlists when I was the U.S. African music programmer at YouTube Music. In that role, I was able to create a home for these artists outside of Afrobeats playlists. Often genre-blurring artists from The Continent were boxed in, even though their music has a sound that’s an alternative to the mainstream. Ironically, artists from the alté scene are now being tapped to create hit songs with the biggest afrobeats superstars like WizKid, Tiwa Savage, Davido and Mr Eazi. Also in that role, I got to work with distribution companies like Platoon, who have released projects from Lady Donli, Amaarae, and Adekunle Gold.
It’s exciting to see Nigerian artists like Lady Donli work with many UK artists like Kida Kudz, Knucks, Ragz Originale, Benji Flow, Azekel, and Shaé Universe. Now that we’re fresh off the release of Lady Donli’s WILD EP, I can’t wait to see the next era of Lady Donli and my journey as we take her from Abuja to the world.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2CSey8futg1RyPI2Gx9kVv?si=UyR7okUgT_yXBs39uJBWrw&dl_branch=1
In January 2019, my friend Funmi came back from Nigeria and introduced me to artists from West Africa in the alté scene like Lady Donli, Amaarae, Santi, Odunsi, and Wavy The Creator, who are now signed to international deals and playing festivals around the world.
In 2019, before starting at Secretly Group, I was able to carve out a lane for afro-fusion and alternative African musicians on playlists when I was the U.S. African music programmer at YouTube Music. In that role, I was able to create a home for these artists outside of Afrobeats playlists. Often genre-blurring artists from The Continent were boxed in, even though their music has a sound that’s an alternative to the mainstream. Ironically, artists from the alté scene are now being tapped to create hit songs with the biggest afrobeats superstars like WizKid, Tiwa Savage, Davido and Mr Eazi. Also in that role, I got to work with distribution companies like Platoon, who have released projects from Lady Donli, Amaarae, and Adekunle Gold.
It’s exciting to see Nigerian artists like Lady Donli work with many UK artists like Kida Kudz, Knucks, Ragz Originale, Benji Flow, Azekel, and Shaé Universe. Now that we’re fresh off the release of Lady Donli’s WILD EP, I can’t wait to see the next era of Lady Donli and my journey as we take her from Abuja to the world.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2CSey8futg1RyPI2Gx9kVv?si=UyR7okUgT_yXBs39uJBWrw&dl_branch=1
