CKay’s ‘Love Nwantiti’ continues to hold its position as the highest-selling Nigerian song in the United States.
Nigerian mainstream pop music is and has been enjoying global success for a while, starting from the shores of Africa, to UK and the rest of Europe, then to the US and Asia. In the United States, Afrobeats stars have earned multiple platinum plaques for their music, and also received numerous awards from different award ceremonies.
In the ranking of the best-selling Nigerian artists in the United States, CKay leads the contingent with over 8 million units sold thanks to his viral hit single ‘Love Nwantiti‘ which blew up on TikTok in 2021.
The song is the most certified Nigerian song in the United States with over 8 million units sold which puts it in a prime position to be Afrobeats’ first diamond record.
Afrobeats Legend Wizkid is second on the list after his top 10 single ‘Essence’ featuring Tems & Justin Bieber alone sold over 4 million units. Wizkid is also the most certified Nigerian artist in the United States with 8 certifications.
Rema is the third highest-selling Nigerian artist in the US with over 5 million units sold thanks to the success of his mega-hit single ‘Calm Down’ which has been declared 6 times RIAA platinum.
With ‘Calm Down’, Rema set multiple records including becoming the African artist to accumulate over 1 billion streams on a song in the United States.
Other records held by the song include being the highest charting Nigerian song on the Billboard Hot 100 with a NO. 3 peak. It’s the first African song to spend over 52 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as the first to top Billboard’s radio chart.
Other Nigerian artists that have received multiple RIAA certifications include Tems who holds the record for the first Nigerian artist to debut on the Hot 100, Burna Boy who is the Nigerian act with the most Hot 100 entries, and Davido whose single ‘Fall’ is the first Nigerian song to be certified RIAA Gold.
The race to see which Afrobeats artist would have the first record to be certified Diamond from the genre is on, and it gets interesting by the day.
