EXPLAINER: Who is Big Banju?

Emerging Nigerian music artiste, Big Banju, is trending because he reportedly spent ₦400 million on X (formerly Twitter) ads to promote his single called “Ada”.

As a result of this, the Akwa Ibom State-born singer, known for Afrobeat, Afropop, and deep emotional street vibe lyrics, has his ads showing on almost everyone’s X timeline.

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People started talking about him because his name kept appearing on X, and users have even joked that they can’t scroll without seeing him.

If you’ve been anywhere near the X timeline recently, you’ve likely encountered him.

His ads rarely explain much about his music, but show up between tweets and most comments.

Before now, the success of the music industry relied on a semi-mystical combination of talent, timing, and the co-sign of gatekeepers, but with the age of streaming platforms, the formula has been rewritten.

Social media platforms like X and Instagram have replaced the record store and the street team, and with this transition has come a dangerous inversion.

In this model, the goal is not necessarily to build an audience organically, but to seize attention by any algorithmic means necessary.

But music is an emotional product as it exists in a realm of resonance, memory, and mood. And when artistes allow their work to be packaged and pushed like cheap e-commerce goods, they risk eroding that emotional core.

This, in effect, has raised mixed reactions with a percentage of users tagging him as ‘smart’ for investing in himself and going all out to be seen, while others are of the opinion that the ads are too much and annoying.

Either way, it’s working because people are now curious about him and his music.

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