This week, Nigerian superstar CKay crossed one billion solo streams on Spotify. Over the course of his career, the celebrated singer-songwriter solidified his Emo-Afrobeats soundscape with the EPs ‘CKay The First’ (2019), ‘Boyfriend’ (2021), and his debut album ‘Sad Romance’ (2022), which featured some of Africa’s talented exports including Davido, Ayra Starr, Focalistic and Mayra Andrade. The deluxe edition of ‘Sad Romance’ was released on June 16 and features four new tracks, including the Joeboy, assisted ‘Capture My Soul’ and ‘Hallelujah’ with Blaqbonez. ‘Hallelujah’ earned CKay his first #1 in Nigeria on Apple Music’s Top Daily chart, a pivotal career milestone.
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2023 has been a year of highs. CKay’s mega hit ‘Love Nwantiti’ has been the song that keeps on giving achieving 4x Platinum in the US and 20x Platinum in India and winning a BMI Award earlier this year. CKay has also been on stage throughout the year kicking off with a performance at the final of #CHAN2022 (African Nations Championship) held at Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algeria, another in Pune, India, and a Nigerian University tour. Recently, the star has performed in Europe’s festival circuit, including Lollapalooza, Paris, and HipHop Open, in Germany. In the second half of the year, CKay has been featured in Spotify’s Afrobeats Journey to a Billion Streams which chronicles Afrobeats’ trajectory in the global musical landscape. Additionally, the streaming service ranks CKay as the fourth Top Afrobeats Artist (Global).
