Cruel Santino and Davido Make the Case for Live Streaming Being The Frontier in Music Marketing

Very few things in popular culture are as exhilarating as a properly executed crossover episode. Anyone who grew up watching the American Television channel Nickelodeon would recall the tide of excitement that followed Jimmy Neutron and the Odd Fairies crisscrossing their respective universes in a succession of episodes. A more familiar example would be the slew of Batman-Superman crossovers that have happened over the years. It is this same boundary-blurring experience that Saturday Night Live, a popular American late-night show, seeks to tap into with its hilariously satirical sketches that often meld disparate pop culture universes and feature a troupe of incongruous cast members. 

This phenomenon came into play on Tuesday night when Davido, one of Afropop’s leading voices, joined Cruel Santino, who is arguably the leader of Nigeria’s underground scene, in the latter’s Subaru World Twitch stream. After more than an hour of passing time with light-hearted banter and stories as they waited for the superstar to join the stream, Davido waltzed in, with the sound of his classic hit Dami Duro playing in the background. He wore a teal shirt, a matching teal durag, and an assortment of glittering chains hanging down his neck. Before his arrival, the room was already lively. Artists like Cruel Santino, Minz, BOJ, Genio Bambino, Toye, and SirRaheem had been milling about the room, treating the audience to a pseudo-reality-TV episode. But as Davido settled into his leather gaming chair, the atmosphere seemed to shift palpably. Guests who had been languidly milling about the room formed a circle around him, joining the troupe of friends he brought along with him. 

What’s most remarkable about the stream is that while the official business of the day was to promote Davido’s imminent fifth album 5ive, at no point in the stream did it feel like serious business or a marketing campaign. Instead, it felt like actual reality television, a real “day in the life.” The anachronism of Davido—who’s perhaps the avatar of mainstream Nigerian music- linking with Cruel Santino, who has for the longest time been the face of Alté music, heightened the spectacle of the steam. The star-studded roster of guests took turns sharing lighthearted moments and playing classic Nigerian parlor games like naming countries that start with a particular letter. Davido also held the audience—those in the room and those who tuned in remotely—spellbound with fun stories from his early days, unspooling insider “gist” with his characteristic bubbly energy. Even when he previewed songs from the album and talked about the inspiration for the project, the stream still maintained its playful atmosphere.

Hours after the stream ended, it still kept the pop culture chatter mill running. Pop culture enthusiasts have picked certain portions of the stream as fodder for routine pop culture arguments that surface on platforms like X every day. In Nigeria’s media landscape, where promotional efforts for music have been reduced to a choreographed sequence of events that hardly inspires any excitement in fans, the feverish reception stream has shown that maybe the audience is ready for something different. Think of it, when did you last see an Afropop act promote an imminent release with strategies that do not include courting controversy with bombast such as claims of having the “best pen game”; or a snippet with a group of guys acting overly excited while their faces betray disinterest? The bar is so low that fans have begun praising artists and the teams for foundational promotional efforts, such as appearing on the cover of an esteemed magazine or performing a well-put-together promotional run. (This publication recently published an article lauding Burna Boy’s return to music-marketing first principles.) 

This is why live streaming might just be the next frontier in music marketing for Nigerian music. Live streaming on platforms like Twitch already has a sizable sway in other parts of the world. In America, for example, collaborations with streamers have become just as important as more traditional promotional efforts. Celebrities like Nicki Minaj, Kevin Hart, Tyla, Playboi Carti, and Doja Cat, amongst others, routinely appear on Twitch with streamers like Kai Cenat and Adin Ross. During the 2024 U.S. In the presidential election cycle, President Trump engaged live-streaming platforms to make headway among the younger generation. He appeared on a Kick livestream with Adin Ross that attracted around 580,000 viewers. Trump’s campaign also streamed live coverage of their watch party. His relatively strong performance among young voters shows that his gamble of combining streaming with more orthodox campaign methods paid off. There’s an important lesson to be gleaned from this: artists and their marketing teams need to understand that streaming is not a replacement for traditional promotional efforts; it instead offers a path into new markets (comprising a relatively younger demographic). It is also a way to let fans see an unfiltered version of an artist, and in an age where authenticity is perhaps the most prized social currency, steaming might just be the new goldmine.