Over the last three years, TikTok has become one of the biggest cross-marketing platforms for music in Nigeria, due to its incredible reach and connectivity.
Since 2020, songs like Simi’s Duduke, her collaboration with Laidpoe, Know You, and CKays’ Love Nwantiti have become globally ubiquitous.
A key pipeline for this popularity is the work of TikTok influencers who are helping to bring these songs to a wider audience. One such TikTok creator is Purple Speedy, who is known for her dance-along routines, skits, and sing-along that have helped to popularise Nigerian songs.
“If they ask me anywhere, I will still call TikTok the number one platform that actually pushes both music and every other thing. In fact, for me right now, it’s what is happening in the country. I won’t speak for it worldwide, but I can speak for Nigeria, as a content creator from Nigeria,” she noted.
According to Purple Speedy, she is speaking from experience that she has accumulated after over three years of being at the forefront of making Nigerian songs go viral on the platform. In fact, one of the earliest videos that helped build her profile on TikTok was her vibing to a then-obscure song called, Ameno Amapiano by MC Goya Menor.
“Goya Menor had the song on TikTok since July, but it didn’t move. But when I did a vibe video for it in December; that was when the song pushed. So, I feel like TikTok helps culture, especially music because sounds that you don’t necessarily have the funds to push can become big. Once people love the song, they hop on it. People create trends and all that, and I feel like it really influences every single person, even children that do not have phones,” Purple Speedy said.
Having seen TikTok’s potential for changing people’s lives, Purple Speedy is keen to keep using the platform to help promote Nigerian music and elevate art from the country in any way that she can.