Events that shaped 100 years of pop music in Nigeria – The Citizen

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A group of performers on stage, with one shirtless frontman, raises their right hands in celebration or salute. The venue is elaborately decorated with nods to Nigeria's 100 years of history, and some stage equipment is visible, setting the perfect backdrop for an electrifying pop music performance.

The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early months of 2020 shut down nearly all physical and social human activities. For musical practice this meant near death. Performing music is, after all, one of the oldest forms of social human engagement.

In Nigeria, the shutdown of concerts and public music performances was swift. Not even the Nigerian–Biafran War of 1967 to 1970 could shut down all of Nigeria. In fact, popular music activities boomed in Lagos as bombs rained on Biafra.

The pandemic was a watershed…