CKay’s ‘Love Nwantiti’ continues to hold its position as the highest-selling Nigerian song in the United States.
CKay’s global hit Love Nwantiti holds the title of the highest-selling Nigerian song in the U.S., with over 8 million units sold. The song achieved massive success thanks to its virality on TikTok in 2021 and has since become Afrobeat’s first-ever Diamond-certified single. The RIAA certification states: “Certified 8 million digital singles to date.”
The 29-year-old is also the first Nigerian artiste on Spotify to amass over a billion streams. This was in 2022 for the same song, ‘Love Nwantiti’.
In second place, Grammy award-winning Nigerian artiste Wizkid earned that position after his top 10 single, ‘Essence,’ sold over 4 million units in the United States. This has grown to 6.5 million.
He is also the most certified Nigerian artiste in the United States, with eight certifications. The certification reads, “certified 6.5 million singles to date.”
Rema is the third best-selling Nigerian artist in the United States, as his song ‘Calm Down’ has sold over 5 million units. The song has also been declared six times RIAA platinum. “Certified 5 million digital singles till date,” it reads.
Other successes accumulated by the song include over 1 billion streams on a song in the United States. It’s also the first African song to spend over 52 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest-charting Nigerian song on the Billboard Hot 100 with a number 3 peak, and the first to top Billboard’s radio chart.
Other Nigerian artistes to receive RIAA certifications are Davido, whose single ‘Fall’ is the first Nigerian song to be certified RIAA Gold;
Burna Boy, the Nigerian act with the most Hot 100 entries; and Tems, who holds the record for the first Nigerian artist to debut on the Hot 100.
