by Chinazam Ikechi-Uko
The internet has coined the phrase, “To have an Espresso.” It is a reference to the 2024 hit song “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter. It transformed her career and earned her a Grammy. The phrase represents a breakthrough song in someone’s career. For 25-year-old artiste, Fxrtune, his feature on Afrobeats icon, Olamide’s album, could be called his Espresso, but he says the entire coffee shop is on its way.
MEET FXRTUNE:
Born Fortune Ohizu, Fxrtune had always known he was destined to be an artiste. The older he gets, the more diverse his definition of artiste becomes. As a child, he recounts being on a school bus and hearing Wizkid’s breakout album, Superstar, play on the radio. The album sees an adolescent Wizkid explore and attempt to embody the stereotype of a celebrity. With lyrics like, “If you see my drive by Holla at your boy, chilling with models,” the message is direct.
Fxrtune was less drawn to the subject than he was to the concept of putting on a persona. “I became obsessed with the idea of being an artiste; a musician who created a world and told a story,” he says with a giggle.
He doesn’t know how it sounds that someone could derive such depth from Wizkid’s Holla At Your Boy. But that’s the beauty of art: it possesses one look but a thousand interpretations, sometimes even giving rise to new interpretations of its own. This is the case for Fxrtune with his next inspiration, Micheal Jackson.
He discovered Jackson through his grandma, who loved Jackson’s music so much that she collected CDs. He grew to love listening to these CDs and made attempts to sing them to connect with his grandma. He took this hobby to Secondary School, where he was given a stage to showcase his performance skills. He unconsciously adopted a style of physically reaching out to the crowd, boosting interactivity.
This style was in the spotlight when he opened for Victony in 2022. From the audience’s perspective, he avoided the centre of the stage, opting to dominate the edges. Handshakes, high-fives, and fist bumps; you name it, Fxrtune was doing it. This was to a crowd who had never heard of him; nevertheless, he made quite an impression.
For him, a performance is an art, “I don’t just want to connect with the crowd. I want to bring them into my space. See the world of Fxrtune, it is a fun place.” Of course, this method relies heavily on the audience’s willingness to participate alongside their proximity. So what happens if those things are inaccessible?
Fxrtune explains that’s where diligence comes in, “My first major performance was at Our Homecoming (2022). I was nervous, and my set was so early that not a lot of people were there. That day, I learned you can’t go wrong with the ‘put your hands’. I know that things don’t go the way we often expect. But I always give my 100.”
Victony and Our Homecoming are very renowned brands to have co-signed you. But Fxrtune’s history in the Nigerian music industry runs much deeper. Millions of Nigerians might be familiar with his work behind the scenes.
He has writing credits on the massive hit album, Boy Alone by Omah Lay, specifically on the track, Come Closer. He is a frequent collaborator of Afropop star, Seyi Shay, with credits on a couple of songs, including Why Do They, Maserati Sexy ft. Backroad Gee, and By You. He is also a graduate of SARZ Academy (2022) and was featured on the Ejoya class of 2021.
He acknowledges he has had his skin in the game for a long time. “I recorded my first song in 2014. It was way back in Secondary School. I played it for a few friends, and I don’t know what happened, but the next week, everyone had heard the song… they liked it, it was a huge confidence boost. The song was called Get Down, It was a dance track. I took it to university with me and performed it a few times.”
From dropping the unofficial song of the summer in his secondary school (2014) to featuring on “Prelude”— the opening track of Olamide’s eleventh solo album (Olamide, 2025) —Fxrtune’s had a fascinating career; however, the distance between these milestones is a model’s career span. On paper, that’s more than enough time to pivot into the tech industry. But Fxrtune stayed passionate and sane, the question is how?
FXRTUNE ON THE JOURNEY AND OLAMIDE:
Q: A decade is a long time to stay focused, especially when you are in the in-between, almost there but not quite there.
F: What kept me focused was my scriptures. I never looked at the sunken cost; things were moving slowly, but they were moving. I’ve been an underdog for so long, but I am coming, I’m not standing still, I am waiting. I am constantly resetting the expectations for myself. I wasn’t having wins, and like everyone, I’d like critical acclaim. I want to carve something that goes down into the halls of Afrobeats history. I’d like to have a solid body of work when people are ready to discover what I have in store.
Q: That sounds like a threat. But I am intrigued, would you say you are religious?
F: Ha, well, I do hope to be inescapable. I can’t work this long without a ripe act, so it is only fair to show people what a 10-year-in-the-making story looks like.
Additionally, I am spiritual, and I believe in God; I drew closer to Him a few years ago. The Bible has helped me stay grounded. I’m also a big fan of angel numbers, such as 444 and 222.
Q: Strangely, that also explains why Sabrina Carpenter will be dropping another album this year. The concept that an artist has to take some time off after a hit cycle is rather fascinating. It has become an unspoken rule, but you have no plans to follow that. Are there any secret rules you’ve lived by?
F: I am a bit of an anomaly, and it bleeds into my music. It is genre-bending, and that sometimes can be a breath of fresh air.
Q: So that’s saying kids, make up your own rules, and you might end up on an Olamide track. Speaking of that, tell me how that happened.
F: Kids, don’t do anything silly! My friend and producer, Semzi, is a good friend of Olamide’s. Semzi played a song of mine for Baddo (Olamide), and he saw something in it and asked to introduce me. I had a lot of impostor syndrome during the production process. Then Fireboy DML came to the studio to add layers and heard the song; he didn’t know I was the one on it. He was impressed and said, “It sounds like a retro sitcom.”
Q: Why did these words hold so much weight to you?
F: Because that’s what I was going for. During the inception of the production, Badoo showed me the direction he wanted. He had a mood board; there were visuals of jukeboxes and vintage singers. So the fact that Fireboy could pick that up on the first listen was reassuring. Olamide is skilled at making music that transcends time. His songs are eclectic and nostalgic, but not outdated. You know, people are going to be dancing to his tracks even in 2098.
Q: There’s a SINNERS joke somewhere in there. Jukeboxes, music transcending through time, what’s next, a secret location?
F: I haven’t seen SINNERS. I know, that’s bad of me, but I haven’t seen it. However, there was a secret location!
Q: Really?
F: Not really, but I kept the project a secret. It was perfected a month ago, and I left it in God’s hands. So most people heard the news from that 49th Street tweet. I got lots of messages.
Q: Full circle moment, right there. So what’s next for Fxrtune?
F: I’m so excited for you to see what is to come. I am putting myself out there, a true student of the game. I’m working on a single, and I’ve started working as a creative director. I got into it last year. Once I realized there’s more to art, I tried new things. I started with photography and videography. I love fashion too, so watch out for that. I have a directorial debut coming soon. It is a music video for a renowned artiste, it is big, but I can’t say anything else. You’ll just have to wait.
