Four Loveable One-Hit Wonders from 2007

Sample! Ekwe!!!!

Every now and then, a new artiste "blows up" to miraculous popularity as a result of years of hard work, raw talent and sometimes a truckload of luck. After the euphoria of their debut brilliance blows over they fade away from the limelight, leaving lovers of their music to "ask what happened to that singer sef"?

Nigeria has had its fair share of one-hit wonders like Edmund Spice (1991) and a number of others but 2007 brought some special acts to the limelight that we thought had come to stay. Four really likeable acts caught our attention.

Enjoy

1. TY Bello - "Greenland"

The afro totting member of defunct gospel group, Kush came out with the monster hit - Greenland and inspired an entire country with the encouraging lyrics and beautiful instrumentals. It was and still is hugely popular with Radio DJs and received massive airplay for almost a year. TY Bello has since returned to her first love of photography and has achieved even more critical acclaim (bucks too) for it than she got for her music.

2. Resonance - "Chinweike"

Enugu based cousins and pop duo, Esther Abigbo and Uche Ozoigbo came out with a beautiful and charming gospel track titled Chinweike and followed up with le le in  2007 to a delighted listening audience. They even did a remix of "Chinweike with Tuface and seemed set to run things when the duo parted ways for no known reasons. Still sounds good wherever they are now.

3. Adaz - "Zarokome"

Adaz Adabamu Abel, Warri born R & B artiste overwhelmed the airwaves with his hit "Zarokome". The second track from his album that had the badly underrated but highly brilliant first single "Pepperminta". He alongside his then label mate and fellow Warri boy ,B.Clean were signed to a dutch based record label which seemed set to launch them into superstardom. Adaz is still in the game and released a single last year which featured Flavour Nabania which didnt cause any ripples.

4. Stereoman Ekwe - "E dey pain me"

From the ghettos of Agboju, Lagos in 2007 our eardrums were assaulted by the conga drum slapping craziness of wild-man Sunday Osakuni aka Stereoman Ekwe. His traditional sounding percussion based sound and gritty, street lyrics exemplified by his biggest hit "E dey pain me" was like nothing anybody had ever heard before and catapaulted him to success. His rise was marred by a massive shift in music taste as the Nigerian music scene was moving away from the Ajegunle type ghetto/galala sound at the time he came onto the scene.