Banke Naya has spent years quietly conquering stages in the United Kingdom. Awarded. Celebrated. Reviewed by Vanguard. Welcomed by a Mayor. And now, she is finally coming home to Lagos. This is the story Nigeria should have told long before now.
Here is a question that should make every Nigerian music enthusiast uncomfortable. How does an artist from your own country win Artist of the Year at a major awards night in front of King Sunny Ade, Jide Kosoko, and Alibaba, hit number two on your national iTunes chart, get showcased by BBC Introducing, and perform at Britain’s Got Talent, yet still walk through Lagos like a stranger?
That is the quiet reality of Banke Naya. And it is one of those stories that, once you hear it in full, you cannot believe it has taken this long to tell.
Her real name is Shalom Oluwabanke Adetumbi. A Nigerian UK-based Afro Soul artist who has been building her name with a level of intention and discipline that puts a lot of louder, more talked-about artists to shame. She has been doing this since 2018. Her journey may have started right here in Nigeria, but it has crossed oceans to reach this exact moment. Finally, tomorrow, on April 11, she is coming back to where it all began.
Before the UK, There Was Lagos
Banke’s story did not begin in Northampton. It began here, in the city that is now preparing to receive her. She cut her teeth in Nigeria, performing and building her sound in a Lagos music scene that, as anyone who has navigated it will tell you, does not make things easy for artists who do not fit a neat commercial mold.
Banke got married and relocated to the United Kingdom. And rather than fade into the comfortable quiet that swallows a lot of artists who make that move, she doubled down. started releasing music then built a community around herself.
She held her own showcase events in Northampton, giving local UK acts platforms they told her they had not had in years. She showed up for others even while she was still showing up for herself.
Her first self-curated event in the UK, titled An Exclusive Night with Banke, was held at The Lab in Northampton. The showcase not only spotlighted her growth as a performer but also reinforced her role as a curator deeply committed to building platforms for others. Two performers at that event, Tayeh and Shanee Hercules, emotionally revealed on stage that it was their first time performing in years because of a lack of opportunity. Banke had found them, believed in them, and handed them the mic.
That detail tells you a lot about who she is. Banke is not just an artist. She is a community builder who happens to sing extraordinarily well.
An Exclusive Night with Banke was more than a debut. It was a quiet triumph. A celebration of growth. A statement of readiness. If this is what her rebirth sounds like in a small Northampton venue, the world should prepare itself.
VANGUARD NEWS, JUNE 2025
The Stage That Britain Watched
You want a moment that captures how far she has come? Here it is. Banke Naya has performed on platforms including the BBC Introducing Main Stage at the Northampton Music Festival, MW The Musical at the Royal College of Music London, and Britain’s Got Talent with the NSO Choir, directed by Gareth Fuller.
Let that land for a second. The Royal College of Music in London. The BBC Introducing stage, where she was welcomed and formally introduced by the Mayor of Northampton, Councillor Jane Birch, alongside Festival Director Tommy Gardner and BBC Introducing host Kerrie Cosh. And Britain’s Got Talent, one of the most-watched talent competitions on British television, with an audience of millions tuning in every Saturday night.
NSO’s Britain’s Got Talent appearances generated international attention from global media outlets and celebrities, with footage from their debut airing on ITV to around five million live viewers. Banke was on that stage. Not as a background act. As a contributing voice in a choir that judge Amanda Holden called the best choir ever on the show.
And through all of this, Nigeria was barely paying attention.
KEY MILESTONES IN HER JOURNEY
| 2018 First single Mirror released | BGT Britain’s Got Talent with NSO Choir | No. 2 Baby Tornado on Nigerian iTunes |
| 2026 Artist of the Year, Coolwealth Awards | 6 Tracks Debut EP Naya released | Apr 11 The Homecoming, Lagos 2026 |
The Music That Earned Her a Room in Rooms She Was Never Supposed to Enter
Banke Naya is a Nigerian-born, UK-based Afro Soul artist and composer whose music is inspired by personal experiences, growth, and love. That description is accurate but it does not capture the weight of what she has actually been making.
Her debut EP is called Naya. The name means rebirth. And everything about the project lives up to that word. Musically, Naya leans heavily into Afropop and soul music, while lyrically it is about Banke’s journey and the struggles of being an independent artist, her personal battles, and the duality of how talent can feel both a blessing and a burden.
One of the most striking tracks on the project is called Fighter. Fighter is very personal because it talks about her health struggles living with Sickle Cell Disorder and what it means to live and fight through it. That is not a metaphor. That is a woman standing on a stage and singing about the literal act of surviving her own body, night after night, while showing up and delivering performances that leave audiences asking for her contact details.
The EP also features Woman, which she describes as a victory song reflecting on everything she has faced, especially as a woman, and celebrating strength and resilience. There is Pressure, which she says everyone will relate to in terms of going through down times when it feels like help is not available. And then there is Thirty, her first single from the project, released to coincide with her thirtieth birthday.
Thirty is really special to me. I turned 30 recently and I'm still figuring things out, learning to be okay with not knowing exactly where the road leads. Thirty is my reminder that uncertainty can also be part of the adventure.
BANKE NAYA, NORTHAMPTON CHRONICLE, AUGUST 2025
This is not surface-level music. This is the kind of songwriting that earns you a room in conversations that are much bigger than any one chart position or award.
Baby Tornado and the Chart That Nigeria Ignored
In February 2026, Banke released Baby Tornado. It was a love song, but not the kind that plays it safe. Baby Tornado is not your typical love song. It is love personified as movement: unpredictable, passionate, consuming. Banke Naya does not just sing about affection; she captures the chaos and comfort that true love brings. Her voice moves like weather, calm in one moment, electric in the next.
The record hit number two on the Nigerian iTunes chart. Number two. From an independent, UK-based Nigerian artist who does not have a major label machine behind her, who funds her own videos and books her own shows and still finds time to lift other artists up alongside her. Number two.
And then, almost in the same breath as the chart success, she walked into the 2026 Coolwealth Awards and walked out with the Artist of the Year (Diaspora) award. It was a night that gathered cultural giants including King Sunny Ade, Jide Kosoko, Alibaba, Oritse Femi, Kenny Blaq, Akpororo, and Obesere. Among royalty, icons, and culture shapers, her name stood tall not as a rising act, but as a defining voice of diaspora excellence.
Let that picture sit with you. King Sunny Ade in the room. And the award goes to Banke Naya.
| WHAT THE UK ALREADY KNOWS ABOUT BANKE NAYA BBC Introducing Main Stage, Northampton Music Festival 2025: Performed and was formally welcomed by the Mayor of Northampton, Councillor Jane Birch, introduced by BBC Introducing host Kerrie Cosh and Festival Director Tommy Gardner. MW The Musical, Royal College of Music, London: One of the UK’s most prestigious music institutions. She has performed there. Britain’s Got Talent with the NSO Choir: Directed by Gareth Fuller. Watched by approximately five million live viewers on ITV. All four judges voted yes. Amanda Holden called the choir the best choir ever on the show. Northamptonshire Music Awards (LMAs): Nominated for R&B/Afrobeats/Dancehall/Reggae Artist of the Year. Rhythm & Poesy Awards: Nominated for Shay Breakthrough Artist of the Year. Koko Camden, London: A reviewer wrote: You killed your set at Koko Camden and I honestly cannot wait for the world to know your name. Baby Tornado (February 2026): Hits No. 2 on the Nigerian iTunes Chart. Artist of the Year (Diaspora) at the 2026 Coolwealth Awards the same year. |
The Homecoming: April 11, Jameson Yard, Lekki Phase 1
Here is where everything circles back. All the stages, all the awards, all the battles with Sickle Cell and uncertainty and building a music career in a country that is not your own, and all the songs that have been quietly accumulating a following, they all point to one night.
April 11, 2026. Jameson Yard, Lekki Phase 1. Doors open at 6PM. Banke Naya: The Homecoming.
This is not just a concert. It is a declaration. It is a Nigerian woman who left, built something real abroad without abandoning where she came from, and is now standing at the door of the Lagos music scene and asking to be seen properly this time. Not through the filtered, incomplete picture of someone scrolling past a name they do not recognise. But in person, on a stage, with a full band, in front of a city that raised her and does not yet fully know what it raised.
The lineup around her reflects the same intentionality she brings to everything. Lexie Armani serves as MC. Ziggy Machala, Remii, Aramide, Sunkanmi Stephens, and Starsamm all join the bill. This is a proper music showcase, curated with the same eye she has always had for putting together nights where the talent genuinely speaks for itself.
EVENT DETAILS
Banke Naya: The Homecoming
A Live Music Showcase | Live in Lagos 2026
Date: Friday, April 11, 2026
Venue: Jameson Yard, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos
Doors Open: 6:00 PM
Tickets: bankenaya.com
LINEUP ON THE NIGHT
Banke Naya | Aramide | Ziggy Machala | Remii | Sunkanmi Stephens | Starsamm | Lexie Armani (MC)
Supported by: Showgear | Techclout Africa | Events by Ken | QuantumEnt | CME | African Wire Channel | Must Be A Jameson
Why This Story Matters for Nigerian Music
There is a version of this story that frames Banke Naya as a hidden gem who is about to be discovered. That framing is not entirely wrong, but it misses something important. She is not hidden. She has been visible in every space she has entered. The awards committees can see her. The BBC can see her. The Nigerian iTunes algorithm could see her when Baby Tornado climbed to number two. The Mayor of Northampton could see her.
What has been missing is the Nigerian industry’s willingness to look in the direction of artists who do not fit the current commercial template. Artists who write their own songs. Who perform at the Royal College of Music and at community showcases with equal seriousness. Who live with Sickle Cell Disorder and still get on stage and deliver sets that make entire rooms stop breathing.
She is not trying to fit into a mold; she is building her own climate. Through performances, collaborations, and intentional artistry, she represents a generation of Africans abroad who refuse to dilute their roots for relevance. Instead, she refines them and presents them boldly.
That is what April 11 is really about. It is an invitation for Lagos to catch up with what the rest of the world has been discovering about one of its own.
One reviewer who watched her at Koko Camden put it simply and perfectly: she killed her set, and they could not wait for the world to know her name.
Well. Now you know her name.
Banke Naya. April 11. Jameson Yard, Lekki Phase 1. Doors open at 6PM. Get your tickets at bankenaya.com. And maybe, just maybe, be the person who can say they were there from the beginning.
Follow the Story on Techclout Africa
We tell the stories of Africa’s most compelling voices, brands, and trailblazers to a global audience.