It’s a great time to discover how we interacted with music last year year 2021. Considering the strange and unexpected events that shaped this year (mainly the global Coronavirus pandemic), music remained a source of hope and solace for the world.

For Boomplay, the mission remained the same, which is to give Africans the best music experience possible with its amazing catalog of over 44 million songs.

So who were the biggest winners of 2021 in the streaming game? The likes of Fireboy DMW, Burna Boy and Naira Marley are the top streamed Nigerian male artistes of 2020 while Simi, Mercy Chinwo and Tope Alabi are the top streamed female artistes of 2020.

This year’s Boomplay figures were culled from data gathered between December 2020 and November 2021. Within that period, artistes like Fireboy DML, Burna Boy and Davido had the most engagements on the platform and also witnessed the rise of emerging artists such as Omah Lay, Chike and Bella Shmurda.

Omah Lay run this year was beyond impressive and the numbers back it up. His song ‘Bad Influence’ off his debut EP ‘Get Layd’ was the most streamed song on Boomplay this year, followed by Simi’s ‘Duduke’ while the song that can be arguably called the collaboration of the year, ‘Nobody’ by DJ Neptune, Joeboy and Mr Eazi closed in at #3.

As for albums, Fireboy DML is proving to be an exceptional artist. His sophomore album ‘Apollo’ was the third most streamed album of 2021 but his debut project ‘Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps’ was not left out of the race as it took the top spot as the most streamed album in 2021 while Burna Boy’s “Twice As Tall” proudly occupies the number 2 spot.

With over 50 million monthly active users, Boomplay remains Africa’s most trusted source of music, be it for local or international content. Roddy Rich’s debut album ‘Please Excuse Me For Being Anti-Social’ turned out to be the most streamed body of work from an international act last year.