Have you noticed there have been a lot of songs by Nigerian musicians featuring Francophone artists, just like Nigerian-French entrepreneur Wale Gbadamosi-Oyekanmi did? Lagos feat. Paris is a cultural project that Wale designed to bring French and Nigerian Afrobeats stars onto the same stage in Lagos after realising the potentials of a collaboration between Nigerian and French artists.
Speaking to Rolling Stone Africa on what inspired the project, he shared that after he moved back to Nigeria with his family in August 2025, he found himself taking ride-hailing cars around Lagos, and during one of those journeys, he heard a French song playing on Nigerian radio, and he was surprised such collaboration could top charts even in a language that most people don’t understand in Nigeria.
The song was “Badman Gangsta”, a collaboration between Nigerian star Asake and French artist Tiakola. During that time, the song was No. 1 on Nigeria’s official singles chart. The reception of the song in Nigeria made him realise that a French-language collaboration could find a major audience in Nigeria, and he wondered how many connections between Nigerian and French musicians already existed. This made him compile a playlist of Nigerian-French collaborations under the name Lagos feat. Paris.
“What I realised is that the pace of collaboration between those two countries is accelerating,” he told Rolling Stone Africa. “Let’s explore it. Let’s bring some of the Nigerian skill and flavour to those French artists who do not perform in Nigeria.” That is the thinking behind LAGOS feat. PARIS, which is evolving from a playlist into an eight-day cultural programme built around music, training, collaboration and live performance.
The programme will bring French and Nigerian artists, producers, singers and topliners together, including a three-day music camp where participants will work on new material. There will also be training sessions, opportunities for emerging Nigerian creatives to connect with established French artists, a homecoming ceremony and, ultimately, a live music festival expected to bring the two creative worlds together before a Lagos audience.
The festival is part of a larger vision. Wale does not see Lagos feat. Paris as just another music event or a one-off international collaboration. He describes it as “building a bridge in Nigeria with a global cultural capital”, and Paris is the first bridge. “I’m starting Lagos featuring Paris this year, in 2026, and I’m very interested in expanding to Lagos featuring Abidjan, Lagos featuring Salvador de Bahia,” he said. “Why not Lagos featuring Seoul? Because of the K-pop elements.”
It is an ambitious idea rooted in something personal for Wale. Born and raised in Paris with Nigerian roots, he understands the value of moving between cultures because he has spent much of his life doing exactly that. “I do believe that mixing different origins and different people – to put it in one way – I do believe that diversity creates value,” he said.
There has never been a project like Lagos feat. Paris. The initiative is the first cultural event that will bring headliners from Nigeria with headliners from France in Lagos. Wale sees this as not just an opportunity for Nigerian artists to enter France or French artists to enter Nigeria, but for both sides to influence what comes next.
He points to the creative exchange already happening between artists across borders. In his view, inspiration no longer moves in a straight line from one country to another. It circulates. “Tiakola is inspired by Rema. Rema is inspired by Theodora. So there’s a circle there that we can gain from by working together,” Wale said.
That circle is precisely what he wants to strengthen. For Nigerian artists, the opportunity extends beyond simply sharing a stage with French acts. Wale wants emerging producers, singers and songwriters to have access to creative relationships that they may not otherwise encounter. Not every young Nigerian creative can travel to Paris or enter a European studio. Bringing international talent to Lagos can make that exchange more accessible.
The music camp is intended to become one of those spaces where Nigerian producers and French artists will work together with the aim of creating new music that could eventually be released in 2027. The objective is not to make a crossover for the sake of it, but to allow artists to spend time together long enough for something organic to emerge. “I hope they can discover,” Wale said. “It’s about connecting with people who do what you also love, but in a different way, with a different language, and in a different location.”
Lagos feat. Paris will eventually extend beyond music. Wale eyes film as the next step, then fashion, sports, food, and art. “The festival starts in year one around music. Year two will be about music and film. In year three, we’re going to add fashion, and we’re going to add sports, food, culture, and arts. So the goal is to expand the cultural space as much as we can so that the whole French and Nigerian ecosystem works better,” the creative entrepreneur revealed.
He is trying to help push more of Nigeria’s creativity to be seen everywhere across the world by connecting its creatives with talents from different parts of the world. It won’t end with Lagos featuring Paris; it will feature other countries’ capitals. “Lagos feat Paris” is building a bridge in Nigeria with different capitals of the world. So Paris is one, but there can be many others. So this is happening this year from the 5th to the 12th of December,” Wale shared.
The history-making eight-day programme is a starting point of a project which aims to create a bridge from Lagos to the rest of the world. The eighth day is the music festival with up to 3,000 people at the J. Randle Centre in Lagos, and we can’t wait.
