THREE Nigerian superstars made it to the 2022 list of top 25 favourite songs that a former United States President, Barack Obama, released, with some fans expressing their views about his choice of music.
Sharing the list of his favourite songs for 2022 on Friday December 23 via his social media handles, Obama wrote, “I always enjoy sharing my end-of-year music playlist with all of you, and this year we heard a lot of great songs.”
Burna Boy, born Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, made the list with his Grammy-nominated ‘Last Last’ single off the Grammy-nominated ‘Love, Damini’ album.
Ayra Starr’s recent release ‘Rush’ and her Mavin record label mate, Rema’s widely-acclaimed ‘Calm Down’ are also in the 25-song list.
Other popular songs on the list included ‘Pull Up’ by Jamaican singer, Koffee; ‘The Heart Part 5’ by American rapper, Kendrick Lamar; ‘About Damn Time’ by American singer, Lizzo; and ‘Shirt’ by SZA.
Nigerian sports journalist Lolade Adewuyi said although ‘Calm Down’ and ‘Last Last’ were really cool Afrobeats hits, Goya Menor’s ‘You want to Bamba, you want to chill with the big boys?’ should also have been on the list.
Another Nigerian, Olabode Abdulkabir, reacted via twitter, “Your excellency you’re incredible sir. Thank you for always showing our artistes the love. We do appreciate your support here in Nigeria.”
The former president received criticisms for excluding Drake and Taylor Swift from the list, as many fans believed the latter had one of the best albums of all time this year.
However, Obama has invited suggestions on songs or artistes which he needed to check out, and it is hoped that some of the suggested songs would make it to his next list.