Nigeria needs to move on from singer’s loss of Starboy name to The Weeknd

Last night Nigerian music Twitter exploded into another episode of ‘Weeknd stole Wizkid’s Starboy name’. And my first thoughts were: ‘Aren’t we done with this’?

This issue cropped up again because Wizkid announced a new song with Drake, via Twitter, and The Weeknd also tweeted the name, and announced the release date of his next full-length project titled “Starboy”. The album will be made available globally on November 25, 2016.

Why did Nigeria react so strongly on Twitter? The first wave of reaction concerning this topic came with the announcement which was done weeks ago. The singer announced a new album with the title, and has proceeded to rebrand himself with the name. He has lost his former hairdo, and now spots a cleaner image.

Also he has released the title track to the album which is gaining massive traction, thanks to marketing and distribution power of XO Records, and Republic Records (which is a division of Universal Music Group). There’s a new dope video out now, which visually documents the singer’s re-invention as ‘Starboy’. With all of these happening, the world will come to associate the name with the singer.

But Nigerians (or Nigerians on Twitter) are still going through all the stages of grief. You can find all the stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – in Tweets that reflect this.

For denial, people are still holding on to the fact that Wizkid is their only Starboy. To them the Weeknd can never be the one true Starboy. Never mind that he has a bigger marketing budget than Wizkid, has a greater fanbase, and is signed to a major label. He still isn’t Starboy. Anger has  people demanding forcefully that he drop the name, and unravel all his carefully planned roll-out campaign for a new album? No thank you. Depression can be found in those who are weeping for the loss of Starboy. While many, like myself have moved on.

Come on, it’s just a name. Wizkid can find another one. He found Starboy, didn’t he? It won’t bring on the end of life, if he searches for another name to represent his brand.

How long will Nigerians continue to agonise over Wizkid’s branding, and give themselves sleepless arguments over a man who is clearly enjoying his life and chasing new frontiers? Wizkid himself is failing to move on, although he does it subtly with hints dropped which betray the fact the he is yet to move on.

While we accept that Wizkid was done badly by The Weeknd, we also need to put things in perspective, accept the fact that someone smoother, with a stronger plan and marketing campaign jumped on a name that Wizkid has failed to ‘own’ by copyrighting it for business, and also releasing records with that title for street credibility. The Weeknd is basing all of his comeback and redefinition on that name. He has an album, a single and a video out with that name. Nigerians need to move on from this saga, and by doing so, encourage Wizkid to focus on developing a stronger brand identity. When he does that, he needs to learn from this experience and properly brand himself with more than a name.