ASAKE Tickets

Inspired by South African amapiano, and rich gospel harmonies that alternate between the spiritual and street-smart, ASAKE’s chart-breaking fusion has found new points of connection in an effortless dance of styles celebrating African identity and the artist’s burning desire to keep pushing forward.

In school, Ahmed Ololade was known as “the child of ASAKE” – his mum, a teacher. Fast forward a few years, and as the Nigerian singer-songwriter has been catapulted from the schoolyard to global fame, and piling up the chart records, he’s proud to do it in the name of his “powerful” mother.

A dancer with a degree in theatre and performing arts from Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University, ASAKE grew up in a music-loving household, drawing inspiration from the likes of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and fuji icon Barrister. Seen from a distance, his success looks vertiginous but he’s quick to stress that he worked for years before his infectious, amapiano-infused 2020 single ‘Mr Money’ – one of his many standout collabs with progressive-minded producer Magicsticks – struck a chord with mass audiences, while giving rise to another distinctive moniker.

Nigerian rapper and Afrobeats guru Olamide soon took notice: ASAKE dropped his first EP Ololade Asake on the artist’s YBNL label in 2022, featuring Olamide himself in street-pop confection ‘Omo Ope’, and making waves with the fuji-laden ‘Sungba’. Throughout the record, his trademark Yoruba slang alternated with pidgin English, while amapiano’s club-centric beats gave way to soul-stirring choral chants. The EP laid the foundation for ASAKE’s grand entrance into the pantheon of Afrobeats trailblazers, until his 2022 debut full-length crowned him Mr. Money With The Vibe for good, breaking streaming records and shooting into the Billboard 200. Opening with the artist’s sweeping, choir-backed statement of intent to “no go dull”, the album fully captured the Lagos spirit as he juggled sax-laced spiritual musings and swaggering rhymes, from partying to hustling to lust, while Grammy winner Burna Boy was invited for a remix of ‘Sungba’.

After a breakout year, 2023’s Work Of Art saw the Nigerian tastemaker dig deeper and grapple with his ascent “from the slum to the top” in evocative Afrofusion stunners. While a bit ‘Lonely At The Top’, he also made room to stretch his creative boundaries, embracing the sega traditions of Mauritius and Réunion in smooth-rolling anthem ‘Yoga’. The album’s crown jewel, however, was none other than ‘Amapiano’, an Olamide collab and neo-fuji ode to ASAKE’s trademark rhythmic flirtations, which earned him a Best African Music Performance nod at the 2024 Grammys.

Meanwhile, ASAKE the dancer and theatre alum cast his performance spell in an array of live showstoppers that proved his undeniable popularity beyond the beat-strewn streets of Lagos, selling out venues like London’s massive O2 Arena and crossing the pond over to the U.S. Sticking with the Yoruba idioms of his street-pop peers while joining the likes of Wizkid and Burna Boy in the upper echelons of Afrofusion, ASAKE moulds this galvanising mix that makes stylistic and linguistic barriers seem increasingly insignificant.