Where does singer stand in the ranking of female stars in Nigeria?

Aramide is buzzing right now, and this is partly due to her win at the All Africa Music Awards. The singer won the award for the Best Female Artiste in West Africa, a surprise win which saw overcame Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage and Seyi Shay.

That sparked a conversation on Twitter where Yemi Alade was vilified and shamed for losing out to Aramide. Such was the attack that the singer trended for several hours, with each minute providing thousands of tweets about Yemi Alade’s music.

Briefly, most likely for once in her career, this opened up comparisons between Aramide, and what the industry rates as more deserving female singers. Aramide was thrown into the conversations on industry classification and the existence of dfifferent levels in music.

As is typical of these conversations, Tiwa Savage is still queen, but Yemi Alade is putting in the work. Seyi Shay exists way below the top two, and by extension, Waje, and Omawumi would be in the conversations. This is the first time Aramide was brought ino this, adding a fresh entrant into the discussion.

But does it have to be? Aramide has never been one to push for ranking. Where the others actively chase pop music as an end in itself. The singer chases music for its artistic, healing and uplifting qualities.

Aramide names her genre of music, Afro-soul – the fusion between the African sound and soul music. This genre is very divergent in relation to existent pop sounds, as the singer chases a crowd that is both niche and sometimes overlaps with the mainstream. It’s the deep, evergreen, stuff, the type to serenade you for moments on end, and designed to be deeply appreciated when performed live.

For Aramide to be compared with the pop disciples, is to yoke her unevenly, and judge her on a pedestal that is skewed in favour of the others. This isn’t her first big award either. In 2015, she won the Headies for the Best Female Vocal performance for the song, ‘Iwo Nikan’.

Where Aramide flourishes is in her lane, devoid of all the drama and rules that ensnare and fetter music. She is independent of all of these rules and operates at a pace that is self-sustaining and deeply artistic. Her debut album, “Suitcase” is about to be released, and it contains music drawn from different depths of her creative spirit.

Aramide can’t be held to industry standards. She wants no part of it.

Aramide’s “Suitcase” album will be released on all digital stores globally, and physical CD stores nationwide on November 22, 2016.