NIGERIA'S MOST LOVED CELEBRITIES

The entertainment industry in Nigeria has boomed over the past couple of years, and that has been thanks to a large surge in social media interactions between celebrities and fans. It’s the one way a lot of fans can stay very connected to their favorite celebrities, and be in touch with them in some cases almost a daily basis.

Instagram, twitter, blogs, facebook and the likes have brought celebrities closer to us. With that comes a lot of interaction and many a times an out pouring of love to the celebrity and in many cases, blinding hate.

But we wont focus on the hate part today. As a “loving” website, we’ll focus on the positives… for now, and maybe… just maybe we’ll jump the fence and give you the flip-side of this. Lest we get carried away, let’s get into our most loved celebrities.

We did a mini survey and research (as always) and these are the celebrities who we can say get the most amount of love from fans, media and the likes and also the least amount of hate. No celebrity is immune to hate, but if the love far outweighs the hate, you have to go with them being loved. Let’s get to it.

Genevieve Nnaji

Genevieve Nnaji

First things first, one of the numerous reasons a lot of people love her is because she’s beautiful and her beauty almost seems age defying, but that’s not even a quarter of why her fans are so in love with her. Afterall she’s not the only pretty actress. Somehow there’s a certain lovable trait about her.

For the most part she’s not involved in a lot of scandal, she’s almost always positive when it comes to interacting with fans, and you rarely hear of her going of on a rant on facebook or twitter or the likes, or in any of that attention mess that ‘certain’ actresses do. Finally, she’s a good actress and great ambassador for Nollywood and Nigerian entertainment in general. Someone you can be proud to represent the face of entertainment in Nigeria. No one is perfect, but you’ll be hard pressed to hear much negative press about her.

Don Jazzy

Don Jazzy

Don Baba J. His production and music creativity alone is enough to make you want to dash him your sister to marry. Simply put, Don Jazzy could very well be the best producer we have right now.

However one of the main reasons, Mr Collins is so loved is because of his interaction with fans and his great, GREAT generosity. For one, he’s one of the few celebrities in Nigeria that actually follows a lot of fans back on twitter and actually interacts with fans as opposed to being snobby and turning the nose up. Secondly he’s extremely generous. Forget about the phone recharge credits, iPads etc he gives out on twitter, he donates to a lot of causes, and helps a lot of people in need (both announced and unannounced). Doing that will definitely get a lot of fans on your side, and even after the messy split from Dbanj, he’s still very much loved by a lot of fans.

MI

MI Abaga

As a fan, it’s hard to meet MI Abaga without feeling like this is the best guy ever. Forget the rap persona, MI is a very humble individual and anytime he meets a fan he makes that person feel like they’ve been friends for a long time. It’s his personality that takes up almost half of why people love him.

But you definitely can’t ignore his talent. His skills on the mic are arguably the best in Nigeria, and a lot of his lyrics reach out to a lot of people that can relate to them on a personal level. It’s very real and honest, and it almost seems, in some of his more personal songs, that he opens up himself and lets the average fan in to understand him.

MI receives his fair share of hate, but even a blind person can see that the love he gets far outshines any hate that comes in from random people

2face

2face Idibia

On paper you wouldn’t necessarily picture 2face being one of the most loved celebrities in Nigeria given his interesting past personal life and his career struggles, but somehow someway, 2face has managed to stay extremely loved by fans. So much so that if you were to say something negative on any social media network about 2face you’re bound to get attacked by one of his voltrons. Yes!! All of us are voltrons for 2baba.

So why exactly is 2face loved so much? Something about him is just real, honest and humble. He might not interract a lot on social media with fans etc, but anyone that has met him will rarely have much negative to say about him. His music is timeless, and in many ways has given us some of the best memories of our youth, and even though he’s had his share of scandals, he’s somehow managed to come out as a winner in the end. Maybe that’s the more reason we love him.

You add the fact that he had the celebrity wedding of the year last year, it’s hard not to like 2face for more reasons than 1.

Olamide

Olamide

Olamide represents the streets, and that is why he is loved by many. His fans are as loyal as they come, and seeing how loyal his fans are, it’s not hard to hop on board and get on that ‘Badoo’ train.

His music is real, honest, consistent, and most of all very enjoyable to the ear. In many ways, he reminds us of what Da Grin was to the streets. That energy, that passion, that hardwork and that feeling that he doesn’t forget where he comes from. Anyway you look at it, you can’t help but admire that, and that’s why Olamide has seen his followership grow exponentially over the past 18 months.

P-Square

P-Square

They are 2 but 1. The closest thing to Michael Jackson stardom we’ve seen in Africa as a whole. The Okoye brothers are mega stars and that’s really putting it lightly. Don’t believe me? Google fans reactions to P-Square in concert, and you see how much love these twins get. They haven’t necessarily stayed clear of scandal but they’ve always bounced back well anytime some negativity comes their way.

But the one thing that keeps fans loving P-Square is their music and consistency. I mean a set of twins making consistently great music for the past 8-9 years? Common. You aint got no choice but to love these cats, even if they are not known to be people persons per say.

Flavour

Flavour

Between the demographic of women who love his body and dance moves (and think he’s the sexiest thing walking), and boys in the east who drink palm-wine and chop isiewu with Flavour’s music blasting in the background, it’s easy to see how Flavour just can’t lose when it comes to a ‘who get love pass’ contest. Everyone else just has to admire from outside or jump on.

One good thing about Flavour is that he’s also managed to stay scandal free for the most part. You rarely here of random gist of him doing this, or him ranting or fighting with another celeb or sending subliminal messages via social media or songs. He makes happy music and makes people happy. Finito! His music comes on, and it lifts the spirits, and makes you either want to whine your waist of grab a bottle of 33. Where’s the harm in that? 

Omosexy

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde

You wont get much better than the one and only Omosexy! This bootylicious beauty (and booty) is one Nigeria’s most prized possessions for more reasons than just the looks. Recently listed as one of the world’s most influential celebrities, Omotola is not only highly loved in Nigeria, but all over Africa as well.

No matter how popular Omotola is though, she always seems to be popular with the fans, and even if there is one scandal or another with her name on it, her fans are extremely loyal, and come out swinging if you ever have anything less than nice to say about her. Plus her acting and longevity in Nollywood has made her a household name, and a favorite of many African Magic mothers.

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Well that’s all folks. I know, I’m going to catch heat for not putting ‘xyz’ celebrity or what was I smoking or whatever. It’s ok. We’ll love to hear your opinion, and if you feel like you have to call me directly to curse me, my number is +234803…. Syke.

But really though, tell us what you think. Who did we miss? Who do you think are the most loved celebrities in Nigeria, and *coughs* maybe even the most hated, but that’s for another time.

Peace, Love & Oringo!