A lot of popular Nigerian dances have come and gone over the years because if there is one thing that Nigerians love to do, it is to dance. It is part of why Saturdays are always for owambes, and everyone bedecks themselves in their finest and most glamorous attires, only to let it all loose when the DJ starts his magic.
Dancing is in our DNA, and Nigerian artistes, armed with this knowledge, are always making songs with fire beats and grooves that make anyone listening immediately lose all their class and home training, like in the image above. And then, there are the creative ones who go the extra mile to create a new dance move to go along with their song and send fans into a higher realm of body movement like…
Various artistes have introduced numerous dance steps over the years; however, only a few have gone viral and rocked the dance floors to immortalize their creators and the songs they are associated with. Some of these dance steps were not invented by Nigerian artistes, but they lost their foreign status when they crossed into our airwaves.
The kingdom of God suffereth vawulence, and the vawulent taketh it by force, and since that is the state of the country presently, we did just that, and even went ahead to create our own mad jamz around them.
That’s enough for chitchat because I can already see the DJ eyeing me and using his eyes to threaten that he will turn my mic off. So, without further ado, let’s get into some of the popular Nigerian dances that… he don off my mic sha.
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Table of Content hide 1Popular Nigerian dances 1.1Alanta 1.2Galala 1.3Yahoozee 1.4Azonto 1.5Etighi 1.6Makossa 1.7Skelewu 1.8Shakiti Bobo 1.9Shoki 1.10Shaku ShakuPopular Nigerian dances
Alanta
This was a unique but crazy popular Nigerian dance created by the music duo “Artquake“. The song’s chorus gave a brief insight into the dance when it said, “open your arms like say you wan fly away, throw your arms and legs around and let us play” (translated for your benefit). However, it said nothing about what was happening to the face.
Because Alanta was nothing without the face.
Yes, the arms and legs moved in an alternate manner that reminded you of someone PHYSICALLY battling epilepsy, but your face, which you had to squeeze like someone who drank happily from a Chivita bottle only to meet agbo inside, was the real deal.
And then, to complement it, those arms that are supposed to be moving alternately are actually behaving like they’re trying to claw your stomach open because one of those flesh-eating scarab insects from The Mummy movie was inside the agbo that you mistakenly drank.
All in all, the bridge that said, “e be like fire, dey burn my body, ” is what really summed up this popular Nigerian dance move.
Galala
When a song comes out of Ajegunle, you should know you’re in for something unexpected. Galala was a popular Nigerian dance that originated from the type of pseudo-reggae sound that was made famous by artistes like Fada U-Turn, Ras Kimono, Blacky and others. However, Daddy Showkey will always be remembered as the real MVP that instigated this dance, if it can indeed be called a dance.
To pull it off, the dancer squeezes their face, cops a half-squat like they’re about to drop a payload in a filthy toilet…
…then they start throwing their legs all over the place like cockroaches were climbing all over them. According to Daddy Showkey, this is the only way to unequivocally show proof that Galala don dey do them again.
It was about as much fun to do as a workout session, but that didn’t stop Nigerians from going crazy with it.
Yahoozee
Olu Maintain’s Yahoozee debuted with a lot of controversy, and the least of all was the fact that it involved throwing two fingers around in the air like you were spraying imaginary money. For one, the lyrics clearly glorified yahoo yahoo and its accompanying perks, and the track itself ended at exactly 4:19.
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Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not, but it became a very popular Nigerian dance that people went crazy with as they developed its steps into various styles.
And maybe, just maybe, people who thought they were spraying imaginary money were actually spraying future money, which would probably explain how sapa came about and why many people are broke today.
Azonto
Remember when I mentioned earlier that some popular Nigerian dances didn’t originate in Nigeria but only became popular after they strayed into our borders and we abducted them? Well, Azonto is one of them. It was originally created by Ghanaian singer Fuse ODG when his monster hit song of the same name was released in 2011.
Nigerians heard it and liked it, but then it wasn’t ‘Nigerian’ enough, and that was when Wizkid stepped in to show his patriotism by doing a freestyle on it.
The new video went viral and gained more views than even the original video from Fuse himself.
Etighi
Etighi is one of those dances that had been around for decades but only became popular after being picked up by an artiste. This dance originated from the Calabar/Akwa Ibom region of Nigeria and became one of the popular Nigerian dances when Iyanya used it in his 2012 hit single, Kukere.
The dance had a brief but intense lifespan due to its simplicity, and despite not being as popular on its own as it used to be anymore, it still features in many dance routines if you take a closer look.
Makossa
Makossa means “dance” in the native tongue of Douala in Cameroon, and it took its job really seriously. In fact, it probably was the first dance trend of the 2000s, riding on the coattails of a very rhythmic Congolese tune of the same name. With it, artistes like Awilo Longomba and Koffi Olamide toured all over Africa, and Makossa soon spread like wildfire, becoming one of the most popular Nigerian dances, even till date.
If only it were that easy to dance. No doubt a lot people landed in the hospital with broken spines while trying to practice it in front of the mirror.
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Skelewu
Skelewu is the handiwork of none other than Davido, the OBO himself, who wowed everyone with his hit single of the same name in 2013 and followed it up with a dance routine to promote the song. And maybe it’s just me, but this popular Nigerian ‘dance’ just looks like someone with an imaginary steering wheel moving like they want to pee really bad.
The song and dance gave him a lot of recognition at home and abroad, particularly when it was played at half-time during a Spanish La Liga match.
Shakiti Bobo
Shakiti Bobo started simply enough as one of Olamide‘s sneak attacks on radio and clubs with the track simply called “Bobo”. It sounded like a mere freestyle at first, but then the video dropped and it became a monster hit with a trending dance step that Nigerians embraced with both arms while simultaneously moving their shoulders like pistons.
Bobo became such a popular Nigerian dance that it sneaked into churches across the country, and even to date, you can still catch Brother Femi and Sister Joanna doing it stylishly while leading praise and worship.
Shoki
To date, no one can successfully agree on the originator of this dance move, as three artistes came forward to claim it; Lil Kesh, Dre San and Orezi. Apparently, it had been touring underground in Lagos for a while before Lil Kesh used it to boost his career in 2014 with the release of his hit single of the same name.
However, the lawsuit for Shoki was probably forgotten, as even the judge joined them to partake in this popular Nigerian dance that looks suspiciously like someone having a nervous disorder.
Shaku Shaku
Again, here is another popular Nigerian dance that refused to pick one person to pay its tithe to and instead had a whole bunch of artistes fighting over it. Shaku Shaku blew up during the twilight months of 2016, but those who claim to be familiar with its origins say it has been a rave in Agege for about two years. And everyone knows you do not argue with Agege people.
You ask why? Well, ge in Yoruba means what? That’s right; cut. So you want to argue with people whose name practically means cut, raised to the power of two? All the best to you.
Anyways, back to the dance, Shaku Shaku rode on the waves of sleeper hits like “Shepeteri”, “Codeine Diet”, and “Legbegbe”, and we’re still in the middle of this dance today. As for the dance move itself, all you need to pull it off is a lot of coordination and even plenty more creativity.
Yep, nothing much.
So, dance your heart out, and feel free to hold the DJ accountable when you inevitably break your back to Makossa or eventually catch fire while dancing Alanta.
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