Ckay

AfrobeatsKaduna, Kaduna StateSince 2017Active

Biography

Ckay, born Chukwuka Ekweani in 1996 in Kaduna State, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and record producer whose song Love Nwantiti became one of the most unexpected global viral phenomenons in recent music history. Originally released in 2019, a sped-up version of Love Nwantiti went viral on TikTok in 2021, accumulating hundreds of millions of plays and making Ckay the first Nigerian artist to top the Spotify Global Viral Chart. The song spent multiple weeks at number one and was certified gold or platinum in over twenty countries. Ckay grew up in Kaduna and moved to Lagos to pursue music professionally, signing with Chocolate City Music and later Empire Records. He writes and produces much of his own music, reflecting a creative self-sufficiency that has distinguished him in an industry where producer and artist are frequently separate roles. His EPs Ckay the First (2018) and Sad Romance (2021) demonstrated his range across melodic R&B, Afrobeats, and what he describes as music from a place of emotional vulnerability. His follow-up to Love Nwantiti's global success, the 2022 single Emiliana, became another massive streaming hit, demonstrating that his breakthrough was not accidental. He has collaborated with artists from across the African continent and Europe, and his music has found particularly strong audiences in South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia — demographics less typically associated with Nigerian music. He represents a new generation of African artists for whom global streaming success is a realistic and achievable goal rather than an exception.