The Nigerian music online community was recently stirred by the unflaterring remarks of rising star Mr. Fido who had a lot to say about the roles his marketing team played in his success.
According to Fido, these marketers hold themselves a little too highly and act like without them, he wouldn’t have recorded the success he now enjoys. The singer also shared that any attempt to point this out would result in him becoming a persona non grata in that community.
His comments has been met with angry reactions from music marketing professionals, industry executives, and surprisingly even from fans who are known to often take the side of the artist irrespective of the context.
In another post, Fido said nobody discovered him. He ascribed the credit of his discovery to himself and then later to God, all in the same post.
This claim has since been disputed by documented evidence from Caleb Oyolola of Inner Circle Entertainment, who discovered him and steered him on the path of success.
After the success of his hit singles ‘Awolowo’ and ‘Joy Is Coming,’ Fido now appears intent on taking all the glory for himself, and should there be any left, it belongs to his God.
His comments rehash the question of the role other professionals play in the success of an artist and whether good music can sell itself.
Can Good Music Sell Itself?
The short, simple, and straightforward answer is no.
There has hardly ever been a product that achieved commercial success simply based on its inherent qualities, perhaps except for staple food.
For a quality product such as good music to gain success, it first of all needs to attract substantial attention and this is the role of marketers and the PR team.
They strategise ways to communicate the music to different consumer demographics through mediums and contents that appeals to their interests and sensibilities.
Branding strategies, press features, a dance routine, a meme video, radio airplay, playlisting, influencer marketing, and interactive content, whether thought-provoking or controversial, are some of the ways music marketers take music to the target audience.
Without this active effort by a creative and dedicated team, the music will simply remain good material painfully lacking the required visibility to scale. This is the story of many artists who have good music but lack the resources to market it.
That Fido provides these funds to the music marketers doesn’t give him the license to condescend on their efforts. Rather, it’s simply a case of both parties holding up their end of the bargain.
It’s even important to note that music marketing campaigns that yield the required result are, in every sense, a big deal, especially at a time when music marketing is very expensive and guarantees are at their lowest.
Mr. Fido might wield palpable talent, but there’s a reason his success came only after he was discovered by the team at Inner Circle Entertainment, who expended resources to further his career, coupled with the efforts of the marketing team of Cidar Africa, who crafted ways to get the music to the mass audience.
Without them, he would probably still go by Phydo and simply be just another talented emerging artist waiting for his time in the spotlight.
This is, in fact, not hypothetical, as Fido failed to gain success when he attempted to do it “on his own” with the release of ‘Mr. Lover’ and ‘Awolowo’ remix featuring Kapo for which he didn’t enlist the services of Cidar Africa.
Fido’s statement becomes even more unfortunate when one considers the Cidar’s past success with Wizard Chan, Shoday, and more recently Kunmie who is the early breakout star of 2025.
Why Do Artists Like To Take Glory for Themselves?
Mr. Fido’s recent attempt to discredit those who played a major role in his success is the latest in the action of artists to downplay the contributions of their labels and teams in their success.
“Never trust the humility of an emerging artist” is a popular saying often echoed when artists act up after achieving fame.
This quote captures Fido’s recent comments, especially when one consider the utmost humility with which he initially engaged with Caleb Oyolola of Inner Circle Entertainment who discovered him and steered him on the path of success.
Another factor that might influence this attitude is the desire of artists to make their journey to success seem more tumultuous than it is.
This sometimes leads them to claim independence to project a DIY brand that makes their success bigger than it is, all while being actively signed to a label, distribution, or management company, funding their career.
This writer also shares the sentiments that artists require a level of narcissism and ego to create compelling art, and these traits sometimes manifest in undesirable ways, such as insisting that they did it all by themself.
It’s these traits that sometimes culminate into the hubris that leads artists to abandon their labels after enjoying some level of success, only to struggle to replicate this on their own.
At any rate, good music can only sell itself when the team has done its part in positioning the song and artist for success. Creative marketing and some element of luck is what differentiate a good song from a successful one.
Streaming platforms are filled with good music and talented artists who might never achieve success. So when fortune smiles on a talent, they should not make mockery of the effort of those who did their part so the universe can do the rest.
