While the road to sustainable touring in Nigeria remains uneven, with strategic investment in infrastructure, improved security, and a renewed commitment to presence, the music industry has the tools to reimagine what is possible.
In 2023, CKay stood as one of Nigeria’s most-streamed musical exports. He rose to that stratospheric height with “Love Nwantiti”, a viral hit that had garnered over a billion streams across global platforms and earned plaques. Yet, despite the avalanche of digital success, his presence on global charts didn’t quite translate into a visceral connection to the Nigerian audience. That tension between global triumph and local disconnect is what led CKay to chart a new path.
In an industry increasingly shaped by algorithmic acclaim, he returned to the physical terrain and announced “The Boyfriend Tour”, a campus-centered performance tour aimed at reconnecting with the home base he never quite captured before he became a global sensation. The name, a nod to his 2021 EP “Boyfriend”, was strategic. The campus, once the grassroots nucleus of Nigerian pop culture, had to be conquered if he was to be truly accepted.
CKay’s pivot mirrors a broader trend. In February 2025, rising star Llona, off the critical success of his album “Homeless,” launched the “Homeless Nationwide Tour”, bringing his sound directly to university students and inner-city youth. Soon after, the insurgent energy of Odumodublvck birthed another iteration: “The Greatest School Tour Ever”, a cultural blitz targeting Nigeria’s academic institutions. Together, these tours suggest a growing return to proximity in a fame economy increasingly dominated by distance.
The Legacy and Loss of Campus Circuits Tour
Nigeria’s university campuses, for decades, have served as crucial testing grounds for pop music, spaces where young artistes build followings, refine their sound, and earn grassroots credibility. The journey to nationwide fame as a Nigerian artiste often begins in packed campus halls, where the artiste’s tracks will echo through speakers and student energy fuels early hype. Artistes like Zlatan, Fireboy, Asake, and Bella Shmurda all began carving out their paths within these ecosystems. Long before social media algorithms dictated success, campuses offered what was perhaps the most honest and immediate feedback loop in Nigerian pop.
This kind of campus engagement has long been embedded in the DNA of Nigerian pop. In the early 2000s, acts like Trybesmen and Ruggedman used campus tours to push and promote their tapes and cultivate cultural authority. If you could conquer OAU’s Amphitheatre or get a sing-along moment in UNILAG’s Main Auditorium, you would be building something significant as an artiste.
In fact, during a recent Naija FM interview, Mr. P of P-Square revisited the importance of this model while commending Odumodublvck’s decision to bring it back. “He’s going back to the basics,” Mr. P noted. “Back in the day, we didn’t have the internet or social media doing the heavy lifting. We promoted our music through campus tours. That’s how we built our face-to-face audience on their turf, feeding off their energy.”
His tone was both reflective and approving as he added, “It’s something we’ve slowly abandoned over the years. But seeing young artistes like Odumodublvck and Llona boldly retracing those steps shows they understand something many have forgotten: that real connection starts offline.”
This renewed focus on local connection isn’t exclusive to emerging acts. Even Davido, at the peak of his stardom in 2017 – a year that saw him dominate the airwaves with hits like “If,” “Fall,” “Fia,” and “Like Dat” – embarked on a local tour aptly titled “Back to Basics.” He performed across key Nigerian cities including Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Benin, Ilorin, Osogbo, Ibadan, and Lagos. His decision reflected an understanding that no matter how global you become, fame in Nigeria must be solidified at home.
Contrast this with today’s newer generation of breakout stars, many of whom, after scoring a single viral hit on TikTok, immediately announce UK or Europe tours. Acts like Kunmie, Shoday, and Famous Pluto have gained traction online, but instead of consolidating their base locally, they chase diasporic audiences abroad. While there’s nothing wrong with international expansion, skipping the foundational step of home-based touring often results in shallow fandom.
Challenges and the Promise of Local Touring
Still, the digital boom has reshaped expectations. The rise of streaming platforms, social media virality, and algorithm-led visibility has given artistes unprecedented access to audiences. But these metrics, while impressive on dashboards and promotional decks, rarely guarantee cultural penetration in Nigeria. In a country where data is expensive and digital infrastructure uneven, an artiste might have 10 million monthly listeners in Spain and still be unrecognizable domestically. But beyond metrics, presence matters. Tours, especially those routed through campuses and cities outside Lagos, offer something no algorithm can: proof of presence. For CKay, Llona, and Odumodublvck, showing up is a way of converting online curiosity into a real-world community.
However, infrastructure – or the lack of it – remains a significant obstacle. At the Elevate Africa leadership event, Afropop superstar Davido expressed his frustration with the absence of world-class arenas in Nigeria. “Nigerian states need modern arenas to showcase our talent and culture,” he said. “I’ve performed in all 50 states in the U.S., but here in Nigeria, I’m stuck with Eko Hotel.” His comments underscore a systemic void. Unlike the U.S. or Europe, where tours can be routed with precision due to a nationwide spread of well-equipped venues, Nigerian artistes face logistical nightmares. This stifles ambition and creativity, often forcing performers to improvise with inadequate setups.
Beyond infrastructure, security concerns have also contributed to the decline of local tours. In recent years, kidnappings on highways and attacks in various cities have raised alarming safety issues for touring artistes and their teams. Nigeria is currently grappling with a wide array of security challenges, from insurgent groups in the North to bandits in the Middle Belt and kidnappers in the South. These threats are not confined to rural areas alone; urban centers are increasingly vulnerable.
The logistics of moving across states becomes a high-stakes gamble, where tour buses risk ambushes, and promoters must factor in the potential cost of private security or, in extreme cases, ransom payments. For many artistes, especially those without major label backing, the risk is simply not worth the reward. This chilling reality forces many acts to stick to ‘safe zones’ or forgo touring altogether, effectively cutting off large portions of the country from live music experiences.
According to Wahab Folawiyo (Lagosbwoy), founder of Avalanche, a company that handles tour planning and technical support for live shows across Nigeria, the challenges go beyond bad venues. “You have places where there’s no reliable electricity, no barricades, no emergency response plans,” he says. “If you’re planning a show in Ilorin or Owerri, you’re probably also bringing your own sound, lighting, and stage.”
Tomiwa Andrew, an A&R consultant and music business analyst, also notes the economic inefficiencies this creates. “A lot of Nigerian artistes spend more on foreign tours, sometimes up to 60% of their revenue, just to keep up the image of global reach. If we had three or four standard venues across key Nigerian regions – Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Ibadan – it would slash costs and reinvest revenue into the local economy,” he explains. “This infrastructure gap keeps money in the West.”
The terrain of Nigerian pop is expanding, too. For years, Lagos has served as the epicenter of Nigerian pop and the industry’s economic and symbolic capital. But this monopoly has started to crack. Artistes are now realizing that Lagos, while still influential, is no longer the sole proving ground. The road to national prominence now winds through cities like Benin, Ilorin, Jos, Owerri, and Port Harcourt.
That shift is already visible. This decentralization is both economic and ideological. These cities are yearning audiences. Llona’s Homeless tour, for instance, featured stops in lesser-hyped locations in the northern states where infrastructure was minimal, but energy was maximal. It was a tour driven by intention and dedication.
A strong, homegrown tour allows artistes to cultivate loyal fan communities, audiences that carry their music with pride and spread it with conviction. It also sharpens performance ability, deepens an artiste’s understanding of Nigeria’s varied audience landscapes, and sends a clear message to industry gatekeepers: this is not surface-level appeal.
Taken together, the revival of campus tours, the reemergence of regional circuits, and the rise of artistes who treat physical proximity as strategy all signal a quiet but significant cultural correction.
At its core, this shift reminds us that while global fame may deliver streams, only a grounded connection builds longevity. In Nigeria, artists must create a community or cult following around their craft to be remembered for long. And that journey begins at home, not just in Lagos, but in the faces chanting an artiste’s name in places their team may have overlooked. It is the student in UNN or UNILAG who knows every lyric. In the unquantifiable feeling of being seen, heard, and held. Numbers may reflect success, but their presence is the root of it.
The Way Forward To Sustainable Touring in Nigeria
To truly unlock the potential of local tours, a few strategic interventions must be prioritized. First, developing and maintaining modern multi-purpose venues across Nigeria’s key cities is essential. Such venues would not only provide safe and reliable spaces for performances but would also foster a consistent ecosystem of professionals, including sound engineers, stagehands, and event promoters, who rely on regular gigs to sustain their careers. This infrastructure upgrade would drastically reduce costs associated with touring and improve the overall quality of live experiences.
Moreover, strengthening security protocols explicitly tailored for touring artistes and their teams is crucial. Collaborative efforts involving government agencies, local communities, and private security firms can establish safer transit routes and event locations. This would mitigate the high risks currently associated with interstate travel and encourage artists to venture beyond familiar zones.
Reinforcing these points, Wahab Folawiyo (Lagosbwoy), founder of Avalanche, shares, “Sustainable touring requires more than just venues; it demands coordinated support. When stakeholders come together to provide reliable infrastructure and security, artistes can focus on delivering performances instead of worrying about logistics and safety. That’s when local tours become viable and profitable.”
Amidst these challenges, artistes like Llona and Odumodublvck are pioneering new models. By consciously incorporating historically overlooked cities and committing to show up regardless of infrastructural limitations, they demonstrate that meaningful tours within Nigeria are still possible. Their efforts prove that with strategic planning and community engagement, artistes can navigate Nigeria’s complex terrain and build loyal fan bases nationwide.
This spirit of showing up and building community city by city will carry Nigeria’s live music culture into a more inclusive and enduring future.