The breakout act from Mr Eazi’s #emPawa100 talent incubator, JOEBOY has become one of African music’s brightest lights since dropping his debut single ‚Baby‘ in Summer 2019, topping charts across the Continent and beyond with an improbable run of smashes. With lyrics that capture the innocence of young love and the sting of youthful heartbreak, the 23-year-old is at the forefront of a new wave of Nigerian pop stars, having amassed over 500 million streams of his music across DSPs.
The Lagos-born crooner continues his ascent with Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic, a celebration of love in its myriad forms. JOEBOY is the sole vocalist across the project’s 14 tracks, which were produced by a committee of top Afrobeats producers led by E Kelly, Killertunes, Dëra and BeatsbyKO.
“Working on this project was life changing — I met a version of myself I never knew before,” JOEBOY says. “The plan was to come up with a title that best describes love, without actually using the word love. Hence Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic. Because love is a perfect blend of beauty and magic.”
Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic follows JOEBOY’s 2019 EP, Love and Light, and a series of notable 2020 collaborations including ‘Sun Comes Up” with Major Lazer and “Nobody” with Mr Eazi and DJ Neptune. “Nobody” was the #1 song of 2020 in Nigeria, topping Apple Music’s singles chart in eight countries on its way to over 100 million streams worldwide Globally, “Nobody” was the third most popular song of the year on Triller, where users uploaded more than 10 million videos soundtracked by the song.
The ‚Lonely‘ video was shot in Lagos by Nigerian director Adetula ‚KingTula‘ Adebowale, and follows the story of two shy neighbours who suddenly realize their mutual interest in one another.