“Together with the team at 5k Records, it was a joint effort and we are all proud to see the song doing amazing in both local and international markets,” says Daniel Owolabi, Label Manager at Sony Music West Africa.

Over 50 million streams on Spotify, over 10 million views on YouTube; No. 1 on UK Afrobeats Chart and No. 17 on the Official UK Singles Chart; No. 2 on US Afrobeats Chart and No. 12 peak on the TurnTable Official Nigeria Top 100 – it is safe to say that “People” by Libianca is Afrobeats’ first global hit of 2023.

But it might not have been so. The mid-tempo song about mental health was released during the festive period – a traditionally difficult period to release new music in Nigeria because of the numerous club bangers for Detty December and even more difficult in the West due to the resurgence of holiday and Christmas songs.

“We knew that in as much as people continue to go to the clubs and listen to the party anthems at the top of the charts, there is still a place for music like People that requires some sort of reflection,” comments, Daniel Owolabi, Label Manager at Sony Music West Africa who is TurnTable Chart’s Executive of the Week.

This risk has significantly paid off for 5K Records (home to JAE5 who has also found success in Nigeria with “Dimension” and “Propeller”) and Sony Music West Africa (who were also responsible for the last song by a non-Nigerian female artiste to reach the top 20 in Nigeria).

Speaking to Melanie Ijieh, Junior A&R Manager at 5K Records Sony Music UK, she adds; “I think the festive period is also one of the most difficult periods just emotionally too. And the song spoke to that and I think it was a perfect time for it. it was something that was needed because, with a lot of Christmas songs and everything happening, it can almost become very jaded.”

She goes on to offer more perspective saying: “During the holiday, life is happy, life is good for some people but it is also the opposite for others. I think there’s a majority of people that could relate to the latter and “People” just spoke to them. I honestly think that’s why it caught on, it spoke to real life, it spoke to almost taking off the misty glasses and understanding that is something that happens all year round, and people found it endearing that someone was taking time out to speak about it.”

When quizzed on plans for Libianca following the success of “People,” she notes; “I would say to build her profile as an artiste within the Afrobeats scene and to solidify her as one of the ones to watch in 2023. So, create and push the music of really good quality from her and continue to build her discography.”

On the relationship between 5K Records and Sony Music West Africa, she explains; “we have a great relationship with Sony Music West Africa. They are very intuitive, they are very much hustlers like we are and I think that’s the ingredient. The stride and the determination are mirrored there. Also, we have an understanding of their market and they also understand ours, particularly with African artistes.”

Daniel Owolabi explains the importance of Libianca’s “People,” in breaking non-Nigerian artistes in the Afrobeats scene before proceeding to share how Sony Music WA’s plans to consolidate on their early gains in 2023.

TTC: One of the biggest Afrobeats songs at the moment is Libianca’s “People”. No. 1 Afrobeats song in the UK, No. 2 in the United States, and one of the biggest songs in Nigeria. Did you imagine, when it was released that it will become this big?

Daniel: First time I ever heard the record, I already knew it was going to do well in our West African market. Everything from the melodies down to the lyrics, these are super relatable words. The production was equally excellent and I knew it was going to be shooting for the stars. With “People,” it’s a song that we as a label were 100% confident in and we were super excited about it from the moment we got into the situation with Libianca and started the campaign. Matter of fact, we started the campaign during the festive period which is one of the hardest times to put out music.

TTC: Why did you decide to release during this period?

Daniel: We had no choice but to keep it moving, apply pressure and strategically place the music in the ears of listeners during the festive period. We knew that inasmuch as everybody is partying, everybody is having a good time and with the club bangers at the top of the charts, there will always still be the low-tempo ones that we have, just sitting in there and doing the damage.

With “People,” one thing I’ll keep saying and emphasizing is the fact that it’s a great song at the end of the day. I don’t think it’ll still be alive till this point if it wasn’t a great song.

After the festive periods, it’s taken new momentum and achieved new milestones. The most important thing was to get it into the market, get it into the public eye, and engage with our media partners. I would like to say a big thank you to all our media partners in West Africa; from radio, TV, press, influencer community, and DJ community as well. These are the key stakeholders that we reached out to the moment we took up this record and kicked off the campaign. I can say it’s been an amazing run so far, looking forward to doing more damage.

TTC: Before Libianca, the last non-Nigerian female artiste to have a top 20 song in Nigeria was Gyakie who was another Sony music artiste.

Daniel: Yeah, everyone knows Gyakie [Laughs]. She’s the queen of the Gold Coast, and our Songbird, Gyakie is still NO.1 for us at Sony Music West Africa. We engaged her and brought her into the market with the track “Forever” which had Omah Lay, a shout-out to my brothers at KeyQaad, that was a very collaborative record, down from getting the masters in and bringing Gyakie down to Nigeria; to us shooting the music video and doing promo runs in Lagos, Abuja, and nightlife. With Gyakie, another thing I’ll keep talking about is the consistency of the sound in terms of the quality, how does it appeal? When you look at these two artistes, one thing you can tell is that there’s quality in the lyrics and composition at large. Also, look at the personalities of these artistes, these are amazing talents. 2023 is going to be another amazing year for Gyakie and we’re looking forward to doing a whole lot more.

TTC: Gyakie is from Ghana, and Libianca is from Cameroon, based in the US, these are two female artistes that are not Nigerian. From experience, do you think it’s harder to break this type of artiste within the Afrobeats scene? The data shows that it’s something that rarely happens and the only two times that it has happened are with Gyakie and Libianca.

Daniel: One thing I would say for sure is relatability. At the end of the day, we’re all Africans and we go to market as Africans. So the goal for us is to collaborate with the talents that we strongly believe in from our market which is West Africa. It doesn’t matter if you are Nigerian or Ghanaian for us [Sony Music WA], the focus is the same as long as the music is good.

TTC: The demands of being a part of a major record label mean that you are always going to have your sights set on the global market. However, there’s always this idea that whenever you try to appeal to a global audience, you need to tweak your sound and make it global. How do you as an organization achieve global success with African originality? 

Daniel: As a label, one thing I can say for sure that we do is we engage in a whole of strategies and planning sessions before we go into markets. We consider it from all angles, and most importantly, we rely on the sound. Once we’re confident with the sound and we believe it’s good enough, the moment we plug into the marketing and promo aspects, we’re quite sure that the song will travel far.

Also, we try our best to not influence the artistes' creative process. So as a label at Sony West Africa, we rely on our artistes, we trust our artistes and we allow our artistes to lead. The artistes set the pace for what the music sounds like and we tend to trust their judgment because they are the master of the craft. Our job is to make their music get to listeners. 

TTC: What are some of the immediate plans that you have for 2023?

Daniel: Artiste development. We’ll invest in our talents directly, investing in their creative courses and investing in the infrastructure in which they create music. We already have several talents signed on artist development deals and others on record deals. The plan for us is to put out music and break out these new talents while we still work in close partnership with other talents that are already established. 

TTC: And what are the immediate plans for “People,” Is there any remix in the works?

Daniel: Definitely. This is a song that has the quality to reach every corner of the globe. So we are looking at various strategic remixes that will help achieve this goal. I’ll tell everyone to keep an eye out.