Joseph Akinwale (born 21 May 1997), known professionally as Joeboy, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter.

Mr Eazi Oluwatosin Ajibade (born 19 July 1991), better known by his stage name Mr Eazi, is a Nigerian-born, Ghana-based singer. He is a pioneer of Banku music, a fusion of sound he describes as a mixture of Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian chord progressio ...

of the record label emPawa Africa discovered him in 2017. His musical genres are Afro-pop and R&B. He was born in

Lagos State Lagos State ( yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Èkó) is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Of the 36 states, it is both the most populous and smallest in area. Bounded to the south by the Bight of Benin and to the west by the international border with Benin ...

, Nigeria.

Early life and career

The Mr Eazi-assisted track "Fààjí" was released on 26 October 2018; he used his portion of the grant he received from emPawa100 to shoot a video for the song. Joeboy's single "Baby" was released on 1 March 2019; it garnered 20 million streams across YouTube and Spotify in 2019. The visualizer music video for "Baby" surpassed 31 million views on YouTube. Joeboy released the Killertunes-produced track "Beginning" on 15 August 2019, where its accompanying visualizer music video accumulated 23 million views on YouTube. In the video, he finds himself developing feelings for a friend whose advances he had initially dismissed. Followed by this, he released his debut extended play ''Love & Light'' in November 2019 by emPawa Africa. It was supported by the singles "Baby" and "Beginning". The EP also contains the

Mayorkun Adewale Mayowa Emmanuel (born 23 March 1994), known professionally as Mayorkun, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and pianist. He released a cover of Davido's "The Money" single and was discovered by the singer on Twitter. Mayorkun was signed to ...

-assisted track "Don't Call Me" and "All for You". Joeboy won Best Artiste in African Pop at the 2019

All Africa Music Awards All Africa Music Awards (also referred to as AFRIMA) is an annual awards event. The awards event was established by the International Committee AFRIMA, in collaboration with the African Union (AU) to reward and celebrate musical works, talents ...

, and Best Pop at the 2020

Soundcity MVP Awards Festival The Soundcity MVP Awards Festival ("TheMVPs" or "MVP") is an event presented by Soundcity TV which awards plaques to musicians and performers across Africa. Since 2007, the winners are chosen by the viewers and fans by visiting #TheMVPs' website ...

. He was nominated for multiple

City People Entertainment Awards City People Entertainment Awards are an annual accolade presented by '' City People Magazine'' to honour Nigerian and Ghanaian entertainers. The first edition was held in Abeokuta, Ogun State on June 14, 2009. The event was hosted by Governor G ...

and

The Headies The Headies (originally called the Hip Hop World Awards) is a music awards show established in 2006 by the '' Hip Hop World Magazine'' of Nigeria to recognize outstanding achievements in the Nigerian music industry. The annual ceremony features p ...

. Joeboy released the Dera-produced track "Call" on 10 April 2020. Described as a "catchy love song" by ''

OkayAfrica OkayAfrica (stylized as okayafrica) is a digital media platform dedicated to African culture, music and politics. Founded in 2011 by Vanessa Wruble and Ginny Suss as a sister site to The Roots frontman Questlove's Okayplayer, the site has beco ...

'', "Call" is the lead single from his upcoming debut studio album. The

TG Omori TG Omori, also known as Boy Director (born ThankGod Omori Jesam) is a Nigerian music video director and cinematographer. TG Omori has directed music videos for recording artists across various genres of new generation, includes Olamide, Wizkid ...

-directed video for the single features

dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

sci-fi themes. In January 2021, Joeboy announced his debut album, ''Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic'', which was released in February 2021 to moderate commercial success.

Controversy

Singer, Bukola Elemide, also known as Asa, issued a copyright infringement notice to Akinfenwa in October 2022, over his recently-released song, "Contour", over claims that the composition of the song was originally recorded by her and the producer of the song " Tempoe", earlier in September 2020 during a recording session. Asa, through her legal counsel made a notice to Joeboy via mail, which was shared by Joeboy on his Instagram story on 3 October 2022, revealed that she demanded the sum of N300 million and gave a 24-hour ultimatum for the song to be removed from all digital streaming platforms. Through her management, Asa also asked for a 60 percent publishing split on the song, and a written apology, as seen in the notice.

Discography

Album

EPs

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joeboy 1997 births Living people 21st-century Nigerian male singers University of Lagos alumni