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Teni (Teniola Apata) VibeZ

Ten tracks from a Nigerian songwriter whose gift is making enormous pop records out of very small, very specific observations.

Teni

Teniola Apata arrived in Nigerian pop as a songwriter rather than a star, and that is still the most useful way to hear her. Where much of afropop is built on production, her records are built on words: the melodies are simple, repetitive and instantly memorable, and the writing is doing the heavy lifting.

She comes from a notable family — her sister Niniola is a significant artist in her own right, working the Afro-house side of the same scene — and the two of them together represent a fairly complete picture of where Nigerian music was in the late 2010s.

Her public persona is expansive, funny and entirely unbothered by the industry's expectations of how a female pop star should present herself, and that is not incidental to the appeal.

What to listen for

"Case" is the breakthrough, and it is a genuinely unusual love song — the central metaphor is a court case, and the joke sustains for three minutes without wearing out.

"Uyo Meyo" is the better record and the one that established her as more than a hitmaker: a song about her father, about survival, and about money, sung over an arrangement that refuses to be sentimental.

"Askamaya" is the party record and the most immediately infectious thing here.

"Kolesi" with D'Tunes is the early single that shows the writing was there from the start.

"More" with Skales and Vanessa Mdee is the pan-African collaboration — Nigerian, Tanzanian, one record — and it is a good illustration of how porous those borders had become.

"TROUBLE" in the Colors session is the one to play for anyone who doubts the voice, because there is nothing to hide behind.

"Murder" with King Perryy and "Aye Kan" with Shizzi and Mayorkun are the deeper cuts.

Go deeper

Wondaland (2021) is the debut album proper, and the earlier Billionaire EP is where the run of singles lives.

Niniola's This Is Me is the necessary companion, and for the wider songwriting-first strand of afropop, follow Simi, Adekunle Gold and Asa.

Listening note: her melodies are built almost entirely from repeated short phrases, which is why they stick after one hearing and why they survive being sung badly by a crowd. That is a far harder thing to write than it looks, and it is the skill that separates a hitmaker from a good singer.

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