Top 5 Most Celebrated Gospel Artists in Nigeria

In recent time, Nigerian gospel music has been making waves in the global gospel music industry. The gospel artists have tried hard to carry everyone along even when they sang in their local languages they ensured that the interpretations were underneath.

There are a lots of gospel artists in NIgeria but the ones listed below are celebrated both locally and internationally. Their music meets international standards and some have sang with some foreign gospel artists example is Frank Edwards that sang with Don Moen.

Here are the top 5 most celebrated popular gospel artists in Nigeria

1. Sinach

Sinach is a Nigerian gospel musician who has won several awards in recent times. She is also a songwriter, a noble vocalist and an international worship leader. Sinach has always been a music lover right from her childhood. She took singing to be her hobby and started singing in 1988.

Minister, Sinach worked as an administrative staff at the Believers Loveworld Church. Pastor Chris Oyakhilome helped her commence her music career by asking her to lead the worship session before he teaches.

Sinach, one of the celebrated Nigerian gospel musicians today, has written over 200 songs and has equally won many awards globally.She is considered the best female gospel artist in Nigeria. Her songs minister healing, hope, and encouragement.

She has performed in many music concerts in countries such as Kenya, Dominica, South Africa, United States, Canada, Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Grenada, Uganda, Barbados, The British Virgin Islands, Zambia, Saint Maarten, the United Kingdom, and India.

2. Mercy Chinwo

Mercy Chinwo was born on September 5, 1990, in Port Harcourt, River state.From children’s choir, mercy later moved into an adult choir and was made the music director of her local church. She also sings as a back up singer to artists like Sammie Okposo,Joe Praize, Buchi, Chris Morgan and Preye.

She participated in season 2 of Nigerian idol and emerged as the winner. Her breakthrough in music started at that juncture. In 2015, she released her debut single Testimony (2015) and subsequently Igwe (2016). On February 20, 2018, Mercy released her debut studio album, The Cross: My Gaze.

Ever since Mercy Chinwo released her single, excess love, she has been growing strong in Nigerian gospel music. The list of top 5 gospel musicians would not be complete without mentioning Mercy Chinwo.

3. Eben

Emmanuel Benjamin, popularly known as Eben, is a well-known gospel artist and music minister in Nigeria.

Eben was born into a Christian family of six in Lagos, where he was Aldo raised. Eben ventured into singing in 1897 and was mentored by his elder brother as a rapper. However, he later discovered God is calling him in the area of gospel music.

In 2005, Eben made a public appearance at a youth conference where he sang and performed his song ‘Imaramma’ for the first time. The performance brought Eben to the limelight.

In 2007,Eben released his first album, “On the Rock”, which includes songs like “Imaranma”, ”God Dey”, ”Iwo Nikan”, “I Don Hammer”, and other tracks in 2007.

4. Frank Edward

Frank Edwards, born Frank Ugochukwu Edward, is a renowned Nigerian gospel artist. He was born into a family of seven in Enugu state.

His love for music started at a tender age when his father taught him how to play the keyboard.Frank Edward can be considered to be a tenor singer. He is well recognised for his pitched voice. Besides being an artist with many songs that cover various musical genres, he is also a music producer and a master mixer.

He owns Rock town records. The record helps nurture young talents, including Gil Joe, King BAS, Divine, Nkay, Soltune, David and others. In 2016, he collaborated with famous American gospel artist Don Moen on the album “Grace.”

5. Nathaniel Bassey

Nathaniel Bassey is another Nigerian gospel artist that is quite popular.He is a gospel musician, songwriter and music producer. He was born into the family of Mr and Mrs Bassey in Lagos state. He is a native of Ofon Ikono, Akwa Ibom.

Nathaniel Bassey started his music ministry in 1993. He grew up listening to lots of instrumentals, high life, Jazz, Rex Lawson, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davies, etc. From his youth, Nathaniel Bassey had the ambition of becoming a super jazz musician doing Afrocentric, jazz and high life. He always plays jazz with his trumpets at night clubs and parties as a result of his ambition.

However, the dance changes when he became born again and encountered Christ. It stopped being about the music, and it became all about knowing God, with the music as an avenue to show forth God’s love.
Nathaniel Bassey is one of the top Nigerian most celebrated gospel artists.