From Wizkid who had back to back concerts to the DMW family whose triple threat concerts from Dremo to Mayorkun’s second edition of the ‘’Mayor of Lagos’' concert was rounded up by Davido’s Live in Concert to the fifth edition of OLIC, Adekunle Gold’s three day event and debut headline events for Wande Coal and Burna Boy, December was indeed dirty and Lagosians got stained not just with unlimited fun but concerts starting hours behind its advertised time.
The Alte Movement went mainstream in December
Frontiers of the movement from Odunsi The Engine to Santi, PrettyBoy D-O, Lady Donli, Zamir, DRB all released impactful records or projects during the year and befittingly, it was only right that they signed out of the year with a bang.
One thing the generation of ‘new wave’ talents have going for them is the bond they share, beyond the music or even the aesthetics, this is their greatest strength and even though it has been highlighted in the past, yet it rings true every day.
Every concert, though in smaller and more intimate settings with a niche line-ups of performers saw them supporting each other in a way that the hip-hop community presently suffers from. [But that is a story for another day]
From DO’s debut headline concert on December 17th which witnessed a packed out crowd and even had Davido making an appearance to Odunsi’s ‘’rare. Concert’’ which left an indelible mark in the minds of everyone who attended to DRB at 10 concert and then NativeLand, every event felt like a win for the movement and what stayed unique was how members of the movement all gathered to perform and show support for each other.
The height of his ‘brotherly love’ was what I witnessed at the NativeLand concert when Odunsi took to stage to perform the cult hit, ‘Alte Cruise’. Before his performance, the likes of DRB and Zamir had taken to the stage but when it was time for ‘Alte Cruise’ the stage became crowded with everyone echoing their movement’s anthem in one voice.
It was surreal to watch and this was again replicated when Santi performed ’Rapid Fire’. With a unique audience of teenagers and young adults armed with the purchasing power to support their favorites, [The regular tickets at NativeLand sold for 10k] these guys have become the eyes through which young Nigerians especially those in the diaspora now view the music industry, the heroes deconstructing the norm making them feel like they are part of what is happening back home.
Well-packaged, youthful appealing themes and set-ups beyond just the music were also noticeable features at these events making it 'cool' for the corporates to associate with the movement as most of the concerts was supported by major hip brands.
Their concerts were also the ones that started at the ‘earliest’ hours as they made the industry to think outside the box.
Headlining your own concert when they don’t put you on, they didn’t even have to rely on any big name artist to fill up the spaces on the bill even though a number of them pulled through, engaging your fans and building that intimate connection without exactly participating in the rat-race and politics that trails major concerts will stand you out in the long run and that is what they achieved.
At the end of December, it was fair to say that the Alte Movement got strengthened and in 2019, there may be a change in guard in the de jure music of the youth culture as what is regarded as counter culture may have finally crossed into mainstream consciousness.
Fun Lovers and Concert goers
For those who hold no allegiance to any artist, genre or movement, you probably enjoyed Detty December much more than any other group.
On nights like Friday, December 21st, a number of people brought to life Burna Boy’s lyrics on the hit single, ‘Ye’, where he said ‘’inna one night, four shows I’m juggling.’’
The night started with Afropolitan Vibes, an event that stands out when it comes to keeping to time with headliner Reminisce bringing the night to a close around 11pm.
From there, the fun train moved to Eko Hotel and Suites for the opening day of the annual Rhythm Unplugged festival and for some, the party continued all the way to the Happyness concert which witnessed a gathering of online users who had become friends in recent months.
Every day had an activity, it was left for you to choose the ones to attend and even without a reason, some found themselves at these concert grounds, like someone I met during one of the events told me,
‘’I usually don’t care for these concerts, but I returned to the country to spend time with my friends and every night they tell me they had an event to attend and that is how I found myself attending every concert this month, I came here for my friends.’’
It is almost natural that those with hit anthems will easily get the attention of show promoters and organizers. So it was little surprise that at nearly every major concert, you were certain to come across the likes of Zlatan, Chinko Ekun, Teni and Burna Boy.
The artistes juggled through multiple shows in one night and while no one can put a definite figure to how much money they made this period, it is fair to say that their accounts enjoyed a major boost by the end of the month.
Teni owned December big time, performed at EVERY major concert in Lagos and even found time to travel over to Calabar for the annual festival and then returned to Lagos the following day to continue with the concerts.
Even without a headline concert, Teni and to an extent Chinko Ekun featured the most at concerts this period with ‘Able God’ a close second to Burna Boy’s ‘Ye’ as the most rotated sings by DJ’s during Detty December.
Zlatan’s ‘Zanku’ was the unofficial dance style of the festive period. There was no song that was spared from this dance craze, even songs that was laced on slow beats felt the power of the Zanku.
At places like the NativeLand festival where the disc jockeys played majorly foreign and Trap records, the few times they ran out of ways to keep the crowd excited, ‘Able God’ was the go-to song and the atmosphere got intensely charged as kids who have been in the country barely up-to a month lost all their home training doing the Zanku.
From girls bent over to get their tip-top formation right to guys crossing their hands as they hit the ground lightly, it was always beautiful to watch concerts break into an asylum of sort every time they did the Zanku.
![Zlatan and Burna Boy doing the Zanku at Burna Live [Pulse]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'790'%20height%3D'528'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Zlatan and Burna Boy doing the Zanku at Burna Live [Pulse]")
