Omoniyi Temidayo Raphael widely known by his stage name Zlatan Ibile is our Amebo9ja Artiste of the Month. The raving music star is adjudged worthy to be our featured artiste for the month of October.
Zlatan Ibile has always known that music was his forte hence his early entrance into the Nigerian music industry. Much like many top artistes, the rapper and singer had his first break in music after he won Airtel One Mic talent show in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Right after his win at the talent show, the Alleluyah Boyz Entertainment lead music star took things a notch when he made his first professional debut with a hit song ‘My Body‘ featuring Olamide in 2017.
The breakout of ‘Shaku Shaku‘ in late 2017 and majority of 2018 diminished any advantage Zlatan had enjoyed as an emerging artiste with his hit ‘My Body’.
By good fortune or good thinking the indigenous rapper re-emerged as a phoenix with ‘Zanku‘ which he explains to mean ‘Zlatan Abeg No Kill Us‘, just before 2018 elapsed. He effectively brought an abrupt end to the reign of ‘Shaku Shaku’. From Chinko Ekun’s ‘Able God’ to his own single of the same title ‘Zanku’, Zlatan continued to flourish. However, the real game changer for him came after Burna Boy collaborated with him on ‘Killin Dem’ in late 2018. That collaboration set the music star for a bigger 2019.
The year 2019 saw Zlatan become the most featured artiste on the local music scene even ahead of the bigger names like Davido, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage etc. At some point every week you’ll hear two or more songs the Zanku pioneer was featured in. He was blazing hot until EFCC became a bend on his success highway.
Negative PR hit the music star after he was arrested by EFCC alongside his industry buddy Naira Marley. After nearly a week in custody he was released. That unforeseen event had the potential of hurting his career for as long as possible but he prevailed. After the EFCC drama, the ‘Shotan’ crooner bagged several endorsement deals to top up his enormous success so far achieved.
In the last few months of the year, especially in October, Zlatan has managed to export his craft outside the shores of the country. He embarked on his first ever U.S tour in October, the month also saw him win awards at the Afrimma, distinctively for the ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Best Collaboration’.
To put a fantastic end to a largely great year, Zlatan dropped his debut album ‘Zanku‘ a 15 track project excluding bonus tunes. He has again sought to establish himself as the originator of viral dance steps as he pioneered a new one ‘Gbeku‘ also a song on the album. So far folks are paying attention to the ‘Gbeku’ dance and just maybe the music star might score another big win for himself. A grand concert headlined by him his already around the corner.
Temidayo is that wild card that pops up and breaks ranks when folks least expected. From Zlatan, it is Zanku to the world!
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