as local and inferior began to wane. Within a few years, Nigerian music pushed out US music from Nigerian radio stations, clubs, parties, concerts, and events. Soon Nigerian musicians dominated the African music scene. In recent years, they have gone beyond Africa into all parts of the world.
Today that the Nigerian music has risen to international heights, it is hard for many to draw a link between that meteoric rise and the cultural emancipation that people like Bright Chimezie campaigned about in the 1980s. Unlike when he sang about being derided as a rustic man for requesting a Nigerian song at a party, nobody will laugh at a Nigerian who asks for Nigerian music at any party in Nigeria. Now, people even have to beg DJs to play Western songs at parties.
Recently I travelled through parts of Germany, Canada, United States, the Bahamas, Sint Maarten, and Virgin Islands, and was pleasantly surprised at how deep and far and wide Nigerian music has gone. At shopping malls, restaurants, street corners, parties, in taxis, on radio stations and in remote communities, Nigerian music was being played back-to-back. People of different racial backgrounds were singing and dancing to Nigerian songs. The feeling I had was surreal.