Year 2015 has really been a successful year for many stakeholders in the Nigerian entertainment industry. Hits songs and videos were released; new dance steps hit the streets; new artists emerged; emerging ones became established, and the established morphed to veterans and legends. Despite the economic and political quagmire that the country found itself, it can proudly boast of an entertainment industry that can stand side-by-side with other top nations of the world.
Search engine giant, Google, recently published the list of the biggest viral videos of 2015 in its annual YouTube Rewind.
Among the many topics that defined this year’s list was politics as the presidential election and its aftermath loomed large in the minds of Nigerians. Occupying the 5th and 10th position on the top trending non-music videos list are the audio file of Ex-President Jonathan’s congratulatory call to president Muhammadu Buhari, and Rev. Ejike Mbaka’s outburst pertaining to President Jonathan’s re-election campaign.
AYTV’s take on ‘Election Results’, Sahara TV’s satirical video on the exit of ‘Patience & Goodluck Jonathan from Aso Rock Staff’ and Bovi TV’s The Innocent Man kept the country in stitches.
Also making the top 10 list are the moments that sent shock waves across the nation. The ‘alarming confession of nanny who kidnapped Orekoya children’ and the Lekki Robbery which occurred in March are two of the videos that also made the top-10 list.
In the music category, CEO of top music label “Yahoo Boy No Laptop” (YBNL), Olamide has been a clear favourite, with his runaway hits Bobo, FalilaKetan, MeloMelo and Lagos Boys making the list of music videos that kept Nigerians dancing in 2015.
The gravity-defying moves of Psquare put Collabo firmly on the list, which is dominated by videos from Nigeria’s music industry, including Flavour and Chidinma’s Ololufe, Woju remix by Kiss Daniel, and WizKid’s tribute Ojuelegba.
The top five music videos worldwide are the Furious 7 soundtrack, See You Again by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth; Sugar by Maroon 5; Ellie Goulding’s Love Me Like You Do; Lean On by Major Lazer & DJ Snake and Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood, featuring Kendrick Lamar.
Google’s annual YouTube Rewind is a review of the music and non-music videos that shaped popular culture in Nigeria and across the world throughout the year.
