We are tired of Nigerian Adele ‘Hello’ covers

Growing up, one of my favourite social sciences was Economics. That subject did teach me a lot of life lessons whose application far exceeds the walls of classrooms and examination grades.

The most revealing of these lessons was a certain ‘Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility’. Marginal Utility is the additional satisfaction a consumer gains from consuming one more unit of a good or service.

For example, if you were really thirsty you'd get a certain amount of satisfaction from a glass of water. This satisfaction would probably decrease with the second glass, and then decrease even more with the third glass. The additional amount of satisfaction that comes with each additional glass of water is marginal utility.

‘Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility’ states that as a person increases consumption of a product, while keeping consumption of other products constant, there is a decline in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product.

This law is at work every time in music. It forms an integral part of pop culture and fan behaviour towards content. That’s why songs can never be hot forever. That’s why people get tired of an artiste and stop listening to his work. That’s why your favourite singer in 1992 is no longer your favourite singer. That’s why 2face Idibia is not the hottest artiste in the game.

Our Nigerian artistes have shown very minimal understanding of this law. They come up with a new song, style, flow, or campaign, and over-flog it to fans. It catches on, everyone screams in delight. But with the passage of time, it becomes less potent, and its influence continues to dwindle until it hits ground zero and inspires contempt.

When you hear the golden words; “I’m tired of listening to that artiste,” understand that the marginal utility of that talent is in the negative.

Adele’s ‘Hello’ is currently in the negative. The British singer who has released her third studio album ‘25’, earlier let fly her lead single. That song has smashed records and blazed through the world. Nigeria was not left out of it.

But as is the case, whatever catches on in this country, we flog it to death. ‘Hello’ has been flogged to an inch of its shelf-life by every aspect of the Nigerian music industry. The radio have overplayed it, the DJs have rotated the shit out of it, the fans have over-listened, and for the musicians, they have over-covered it.

Singer Diwari began this trend. She first released a decent cover of the song, but it failed to ignite conversations due to her lack of star power. What Diwari lacked, Omawumi had in abundance, as she infused reggae to the ballad, and made it her own. Such was the quality that Sean Tizzle

He got what he deserved on Twitter.

Then came Praiz, Ruby Gyang, Niyola and many others. DJs and beat makers, and instrumentalist fell in line too. DJ Caise has a House refix, Yemi Sax worked his percussion charm, and Samklef did throw in a little something for his fans. Chigurl got in on the act too, with a comic twist to the hit.

The other day, I did attend an event where three artistes were slated to perform one song each. They all ruined my experience by throwing away a chance to perform their original single for Adele’s ‘Hello’.

These covers and hyperactivity around this song have taken away the beauty of the record. At the moment, the song disgusts people. The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility is at play here, and ‘Hello’ is slowly going to the other side. The negative side.

These covers need to stop. It’s a new week, and there are albums from Olamide and Runtown. Both potentially dope albums. ‘Hello’ needs to drop. Let’s all sing something else.