Pulse List: Top 10 Songs of 2025

In 2025, the Nigerian music industry was supercharged with a collection of hit songs that tell the story of ambition and hold the power of superstardom. In Afrobeats, hit records are the vehicle that propels an artist from relative obscurity to stardom. It’s also the boldest display of status expected from leading protagonists. This year, we were treated to a collection of songs that dominated speakers around the country, sparked social media trends, and broke chart records.

From the bulk of these releases, Pulse Nigeria’s Music Desk has selected the ten that stood out for their quality and impact. To choose the top ten albums of 2025, the following criteria were considered:

• Eligibility Window: December 1, 2024, to December 1, 2025

• Song Quality: Premium is given to the intrinsic quality of the song. The composition, production, and thematic and sonic coherence are considered.

• Success and Impact: We weigh this by considering the commerciality of the song in a genre-relevant manner. We also consider its acceptance and impact on its primary audience and the larger market. The song’s shelf life is also considered an indicator of its success and impact.

Here are the 10 songs that defined Nigeria in 2025.

The collaboration we didn’t know we needed quickly became the anthem we couldn’t live without. On paper, Davido’s high-energy and Omah Lay’s melancholic seduction shouldn’t work. One is solar, the other lunar. 

Yet on ‘With You,’ they find a rare twilight middle ground that quietly captivated the continent on the back of Tempoe’s production masterclass. Released in June 2025, the song is thematically a familiar love pledge, but the magic lies entirely in its execution. 

Omah Lay anchors Davido’s frenetic momentum with restraint and mood, while Davido injects light and lift into Omah’s signature gloom. The result is polished, precise, and emotionally balanced. It was a commercial success. As Pulse Nigeria’s Adeayo Adebiyi aptly noted, “the song of the year is not debatable; it belongs to Davido and Omah Lay.” Crucially, Davido’s smash bagged a nomination for Best African Music Performance at the 68th Grammy Awards slated for February 2026.

2025 was Fido’s year, no debate there. With “Joy Is Coming,” the Afrobeats breakout managed to bottle the anxiety, hope, and quiet faith of a nation into one unforgettable hook. It’s a line that felt just as much like a prayer as it did a party starter. 

The Boi Choke-produced song, released in January 2025, refuses to sit in one box. It’s a struggle anthem, yes, but it also moves like something built for the dance floor. And that’s the magic. The message is raw and deeply human. It’s exactly what the moment demanded in a year shaped by economic pressure and emotional fatigue. 

Sometimes, honesty really is the most sophisticated production choice. By year’s end, the impact was undeniable. “Joy Is Coming” finished as Nigeria’s number one song of 2025, according to TurnTable Charts,  a fitting crown for a record that met people exactly where they were.

Just when critics were getting ready to write him off as a moment, the Pluto Presido snapped back with “Laho.” Insolent, infectious, and unapologetically street, the record finds Shallipopi operating at full confidence. The production credit belongs to Progrex (also known as Fayaman). 

The sound is noticeably darker and grimier than his earlier hits, built around heavy, log-drum-laced rhythms that feel menacing yet impossible to resist. Released in March 2025, the song is a thematically braggadocious statement of survival and dominance, with “Laho” (loosely translating to “plea” or “beg”) flipped ironically into a taunt.

More than just another viral moment, “Laho” cemented Shallipopi’s standing as a hitmaker with a genuine understanding of street pulse and timing. Along with two heavy remixes, the visuals reinforced its reach, finishing the year as one of the top three most-streamed Nigerian music videos on YouTube.

Poco Lee has always been the industry’s connective tissue, but “Hey Jago” plays like his full directorial debut. It’s loud, loose, and completely in control of the madness. This record, produced by Producer X,  felt like a cultural reset for the entire cruise generation. Released in March 2025, the song is gloriously nonsensical, chaotic, and absolutely electric. 

It’s essentially a four-minute call-and-response that turned every nightclub into controlled disorder. Shoday’s vocals act as the melodic glue holding everything together, while Rahman Jago’s ad-libs quickly evolved into some of the year’s most repeated catchphrases. It’s a song about nothing and everything at once. No grand message, no heavy themes; just pure, unfiltered Lagos energy.

From a TikTok snippet to a full-blown wedding staple, “My Darling” is a quiet masterclass in modern Highlife. Chella leans into the South-South gyration sound, polishing it just enough for mainstream ears without sanding off its rugged charm.

 Released in April 2025, the song was produced by Gstickz. The theme is refreshingly simple. Chella sings about romantic appreciation, but the execution is where he shines. Pidgin proverbs glide over rhythmic percussion, giving the record a timeless, lived-in feel. Its rise was organic and impossible to ignore, eventually earning “My Darling” a spot on TikTok’s global year-end chart for 2025, the only Nigerian song to make the list.

In a year dominated by loud drums and restless tempos, “Arike” arrived as a whisper that somehow screamed. Kunmie’s breakout debut is a hauntingly beautiful ballad that pulled vocal texture back into the spotlight when it mattered most. 

Released in February 2025, the song, produced by The Kazez, is stripped-back and emotionally bare, telling a story of heartbreak with a maturity that far exceeds the artist’s newness. It quietly became the soundtrack for late-night “sad boi” hours, a reminder that even in an algorithm flooded with Amapiano loops, Nigerian listeners still crave honest songwriting and voices that actually feel something. And its commercial success is no fluke, Kunmie’s smash ended up becoming one of the most-streamed Nigerian songs this year.

2025 was Mavo’s breakout year, and “Escaladizzy” perfectly captures why. The song, produced by 2Frosh & Producer X, brought together two rising stars who delivered an anthem. For years, Nigerian stars have risen to mainstream success thanks to their combination of cultural identity and era-defining street elements with different genres. 

This year, it was the turn of Mavo, whose curated slangs and laid back rap style, defined by familiar street talking points, combined with Afrobeats, fused Amapaino production. He deployed these elements alongside Wave$tar for ‘Escaladizzy,’ which vibrantly tells the story of young adults chasing the fast life on a production that caters to the dance floor.

The song introduced the mainstream to Mavo, who brought along his “zzy” lingo. It didn’t take long before the smash hit got a remix from heavyweights Ayra Starr, Shallipopi, and Zlatan as Mavo went from newcomer to hitmaker. 

It’s rare for a gospel track to break into mainstream charts, yet “No Turning Back” did exactly that. Released in May 2025, Gaise Baba’s Afro-gospel anthem, produced by Rotimikeys,  became the crossover surprise of the year, fusing traditional chant vocals with a hard-hitting Afro-fusion beat that worked as seamlessly in a prayer closet as it did in a gym. 

The song’s impact went beyond music. It was the Number one most Googled song of 2025. It became a rallying cry for a youth demographic hungry for hope and resilience in a harsh economic landscape often dominated by the hopeless vibes of the mainstream. 

Lawrence Oyor’s chant section stands out as one of the most important musical moments of the year, a spine-tingling highlight that refuses to be ignored. And by December, the results were clear: “No Turning Back” was officially crowned the most-watched Nigerian music video of 2025 on YouTube, solidifying its status as both a spiritual and cultural phenomenon. 

Rema continues to exist in a genre entirely his own. “Fun” is weird, distorted, and absolutely mesmerizing. Released in June 2025, the track tosses aside the standard verse-chorus structure in favor of a hypnotic, repetitive groove that feels almost trance-like. Production was handled by London and AoD (Alexi Ofori). Critics struggled to understand it when it dropped, but the clubs got it immediately. This is a song that doesn’t ask for your attention; it demands your surrender. Rema remains the industry’s most daring aviator, soaring without a parachute and somehow landing unscathed every time.

The “Benin Boys” sound went global in 2025, and “Ewo” served as its victory lap. The song was produced by the duo of Torye and King Ice. Famous Pluto, alongside the Pluto brothers, delivered a track deeply rooted in Edo culture yet effortlessly accessible to listeners worldwide. 

Fans have even dubbed the trio the “Migwos,” a playful nod to Atlanta’s iconic rap group Migos. The song, released in August 2025, leans heavily on local slang and distinctive marching-band–style percussion, giving it a sound that is unmistakably their own. It’s raw, gritty, and irresistibly catchy. “Ewo” became the definitive street anthem of the year’s second half, proof that regional identity can resonate on a global stage without compromise.

*Many People – Adekunle Gold featuring Yinka Ayefele & Adewale Ayuba 

A historic unification of Fuji legends and modern pop. It didn't do massive streaming numbers globally, but it was the undisputed king of Lagos wedding parties.

*If You Like Gym - Odumodublvck

By far the biggest and most impactful rap song of 2025, Odumodublvck shows why he’s a star who has the streets eating from his palm. 

*Who Does That – FOLA featuring Bella Shmurda

The gritty, mid-tempo groove from Dagbana Republik that solidified Fola as a rising star. Bella Shmurda’s verse added the necessary street legitimacy to make it a club staple. And its rapid rise on streaming platforms saw it claim the no.1 most-streamed song on Audiomack in 2025.

*Body - CKay featuring Mavo 

Afrobeats record-breaking star CKay teamed up with breakout star Mavo to deliver a party rock anthem that birthed one of the most viral quotabkles of 2025 - “your body na meatpie”. The song has enjoyed a great run on streaming charts and is one of the records that soundtracks the December festivities. 

*Hot Body - Ayra Starr 

Ayra Starr showed that she’s a sex symbol with this viral record that became a leading caption for social media posts and an anthem for all women who found the boldness to embrace their bodies.