FOLA: Rise Of Afrobeats Next Superstar

Fast-rising artiste Folarin Odunlami, known professionally as Fola, is already showing the trappings of an Afrobeats superstar.

He began releasing music around 2018 and 2019, steadily putting out songs that hinted at a rare instinct for melody and emotion. Early tracks such as Miss You, Money Chaser, and Feeling built a small but loyal audience and showed an artist who cared more about mood and detail than quick viral moments. These formative releases set the tone for what would become a career defined by intimacy and careful craft.

His official breakout into the wider public eye came with a collaboration pairing him with one of Nigeria’s most energetic stars. ‘Ginger Me’, released in 2022 and featuring Bella Shmurda, served as Fola’s first major introduction to mainstream listeners.

The song revealed his ability to blend lover-boy soul with streetwise warmth, and it helped position him within a circle of established artists and tastemakers. Not long after Ginger Me, Fola’s momentum attracted the attention of Bella Shmurda in a different way when Bella announced Fola as a signee to his Dangbana Republik imprint. That move gave the young singer label support and a louder platform for the songs that followed.

The single that truly defined his trajectory was Alone, which emerged in mid-2024 and quickly became his signature moment. Alone captured the yearning, late-night mood that has become Fola’s musical fingerprint. The track gathered steam on playlists and social platforms, and a remix featuring BNXN extended its reach. Alone turned into the song that put him on more playlists, radio rotations, and the radar of tastemakers across Africa and beyond. That success also fed into the 2024 What A Feeling EP, which assembled his most resonant recent songs into a concise, mood-driven statement and confirmed that Fola’s strengths were as much about atmosphere as they were about hooks.

Along the way, Fola has shown a steady appetite for collaboration without losing the emotional core of his sound. Notable partnerships and features include Bella Shmurda, who helped introduce him to a wider audience. Reported features on his full-length debut include appearances by big names like Wizkid, Victony, Kizz Daniel, and Young Jonn, which speak to both his versatility and the industry’s interest in supporting his vision. These collaborations have helped him explore different tempos and textures while keeping his voice front and centre.

That vision reached its clearest expression on his debut album, Catharsis, released in early September 2025. The project was positioned as a coming-of-age record and a deliberate emotional statement. Catharsis did more than announce his arrival as an album artist, as it debuted at number two on Spotify’s Top Albums Debut Global Chart, making it one of the highest-ranking debut albums by a Nigerian artist on that chart.

Recently, FOLA expressed his appreciation for renowned author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and music legend 2Baba for their contributions to his sophomore album, 9.