On Our Radar: “When People Discover My Music, I Hope They Find Light” – Solana

Nigerian artist Solana is carving out her own sonic space in the Afrobeats landscape, and her journey from a six-year-old songwriter to an emerging voice in what she calls “YoruPop” is as genuine as the music itself. With her breakout track “Okunkun” gaining global attention, Solana represents a new generation of African artists who refuse to be boxed in by genre conventions while staying deeply rooted in their cultural identity.

For Solana, music was never a calculated career decision—it was always the only path that made sense. After writing her first song as a child and recording her first track during university thanks to a roommate who worked at a studio, she discovered that music offered her something irreplaceable: complete freedom. “I can go wherever I want emotionally and creatively through it,” she explains. That sense of liberation defines her experimental approach, which she describes as “YoruPop”—a genre-fluid extension of her Lagos upbringing and Yoruba heritage. Growing up in Lagos as a young woman has profoundly shaped her perspective, and those experiences continue to fuel the stories and emotions that flow through her work. She’s not interested in chasing perfection or fitting into predetermined categories; instead, she focuses on authenticity and self-expression, allowing her sound to evolve organically while keeping her cultural core intact.

What sets Solana apart is her intentionality about legacy and impact. When asked what she hopes listeners will discover in her music years from now, her answer is simple yet profound: light. She wants her work to encourage people to express themselves freely without the pressure of polish or perfection, to find beauty in honesty and being unapologetically themselves. Beyond personal artistic success, Solana dreams of sharing African culture with the world in an authentic way—not as a trend, but as something rooted, rich, and undeniably cool. For her, true success isn’t measured in awards or streaming numbers, but in creating timeless music that leaves a meaningful mark on culture and inspires others to embrace who they really are. With releases like “Okunkun” proving that authenticity resonates globally, Solana is well on her way to achieving exactly that.

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