Celebrity is a powerful tool for social engineering
Adekunle Gold, Dj Cuppy, Banky W and Falz top the Billboard Social 50 charts, the first time an unprecedented number of Africans enter the charts. Here's what we think this means.
Over the weekend, news broke that not one but several Nigerian celebrities had broken into the Billboard Social 50 charts. For those who are just hearing of it for the first time, Billboard is the world’s most prominent music ranking system, using a number of metrics to determine which artist is the most popular in the world in their genre and globally. The organization has evolved from a magazine into a media conglomerate, complete with its own music awards.
The Billboard Social 50 is a relatively new ranking (it’s only 10 years old) that measures the popularity of music artists across the world using their social media activity and their streaming numbers across audio and video streaming platforms and social media. It is important to note that social media clout has become important social currency for music artists and other celebrities. This is why the Social 50 ranking exists and why it matters that Nigerian celebrities flooded the rankings this week.
Just as important as the fact that Nigerian celebrities made the Billboard Social 50 rankings this week is why. The music artists who made the list were chosen because of their connection to the #EndSARS protests, the national protests in Nigeria advocating for widespread police reform, the end of the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and general government reform. The #EndSARS movement has become a global phenomenon with its total number of tweets on twitter surpassing the total number of tweets referencing the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement which also revolved around police brutality and gained global support. It was so popular that Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter personally endorsed the movement and gave it its own dedicated hashtag and symbol, an important marker of legitimacy for movements that gain momentum on social media.
But the Twitter CEO’s endorsement was only extra legitimacy on a movement that had been legitimized by Nigerian music artists who physically protested, used their massive platforms to educate and advocate for public reform. The protests which began after a video of a man being brutally murdered by SARS officials in Ughelli, Delta state led to an online protest that quickly gained momentum after government response failed to meet public expectation. The first physical protest was led by Nigerian popstar Runtown and Nigerian comedian Mr. Macaroni and those protests quickly led to protests in 22 of the 36 states in Nigeria. Other musicians like Wizkid, Davido, Flavour, Phyno, Oxlade joined in, using their influence to control the crowds at the protests and ensure that the demands of the protesters were heard.
Online, popstars Adekunle Gold and Simi provided a vocal and unapologetic point of view to the protesting, providing an articulate explanation of the demands of the movement, encouraging protesters online and offline to keep up the pressure and putting themselves in the line of fire. Adekunle’s new vocal stance is in line with the changes he made as he launched into the AG Baby era of his career, a brand change that saw him shed his previously conservative image for a more sexualized, more vocal persona. He has become more vocal about all the causes that he personally holds, including marriage and politics.
It is for this reason that Adekunle Gold ended up at the top of the Billboard Social 50 ranking, rising to the 8th position this week. His most engaged tweet was retweeted 50,000 times and like 50,000 times. Many of his other tweets this week, provided they referenced the #EndSARS movement crossed 10,000 retweets and reached millions in impressions. He also gained 57,000 new followers and 800,000 twitter reactions to his tweets. The other Nigerian celebrities who made the Social 50 rankings include:
Falz (debuting at No 11, with 613,000 twitter reactions and 265,000 mentions)
Burna Boy (debuting at No 14 with 596,000 twitter reactions and 225 mentions)
Wizkid (debuting at No 15 with 503,000 twitter reactions and 425,000 mentions)
Don Jazzy (debuting at No 17 with 521,000 twitter reactions and 64,000 mentions)
Banky W (debuting at No 28 with 342,000 twitter reactions and 425,000 mentions)
Dj Cuppy (debuting at No 34 with 200,000 twitter reactions and 20,000 mentions)
Davido (debuting at No 50 with 127,000 new followers)
Cumulatively these numbers are impressive and show the reach and range Nigerian music artists already wield. It is even more impressive when you consider that all the artists on the Social 50 this week have very diverse music styles and distinct audiences. By putting their collective influence and the attention of their audiences towards a singular cause, they were able to amplify the #EndSARS movement, expanding its reach by millions of impressions online.
This kind of influence cannot be underutilized as we move to the next phase of the protests and the movement as a whole. Now that we have incontrovertible proof that every tweet matters, Nigerian music artists must embrace this power they have, channel it appropriately and help advance the movements they believe in. And the #EndSARS movement is the perfect place to start.