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Summary
Men question and undermine the work of a female artist in a bid to bully her into charging less.
The gender pay gap across several industries is not news. Some organisations practice sex segregation by hiring women and girls and paying them less for the same amount of work as their male colleagues. Recently, a teenage female artist was called out on X for charging 19 million naira for a show.
The poster with username Onowu (kingmaker) believes Qingmadi doesn’t deserve to be paid 19M for a show because she is an upcoming female artist with two digital hits from last year. When responding to a tweet about how unaffordable Nigeria artists have become in recent years, Onowu (kingmaker) responds,
“They told me 19 million for a female artist with two digital hits last year and a Joeboy Ft this year. I’m not saying she’s not worth it, but this is for an event in Enugu. Nobody is paying that.”
Upcoming artists have always been referred to as upcoming artists or artists regardless of their gender, but the poster felt the need to put her in her place by mentioning that she is a female artist. He even further discredits her work by labelling it digital hits from last year.
Other users also agreed with the poster, Uma.
Clone responded, “I agree with you. 19 million for a performance at this point is overpricing herself”.
Another user with the username J.O. calls her an E-list artist, claiming the music business must be a goldmine for her to charge that much: “19 million for an E-list artist, wow. The music business is a gold mine.”
X user $ELEMOH outrightly believes, “She is not worth it.”
A few people also argued in her favour of shunning the post by telling him to look for artists he can afford as it is quite obvious Qingmadi is above his budget.
Bob Ngene wrote, “If y’all know how expensive it is to promote music in Nigeria in 2024 and sustain a career…y’all won’t be saying this….Do y’all know how many people have a stake in that 19m….you know she’s a signed artiste right?…At the end of the day…she might just get to keep 5m.”
In a clapback tweet, she reaffirms her stance by tweeting, “When I said, “I am the Blueprint,” I meant it. 19 million is nothing. The debut album drops Jan 31st. Pre-save link on my bio.”
This shows how people and institutions undermine the work women put into their careers, all in a bid to get free or cheap labour. Research has also shown that “the gender pay gap has not changed much in the last two decades; it has narrowed considerably when looking at the longer term, both among all workers ages 16 and older and among those ages 25 to 34. The estimated 18-cent gender pay gap among all workers in 2022 was down from 35 cents in 1982. And the 8-cent gap among workers ages 25 to 34 in 2022 was down from a 26-cent gap four decades earlier”.
Chimamanda Pearl Chukwuma, professionally known as Qing Madi, is a rising teenage Nigerian artist who captured the hearts of her fans through her Afrobeat, Pop, Soul, and R&B music. Qing Madi was inducted into Apple Music’s Rising Class of 2024; her songs ranked number one on the Uganda Top 100 Apple Music chart and number three on the Nigeria Top 100 Apple Music chart. She was also nominated for the 41st edition of IRAWMA in the USA for “Best Teen Entertainer (13–19), The Future Awards Africa 2024 and most recently, the Trace Awards. The artist, who has 76.1 million total streams, is getting hushed over her booking fee, but no one has raised an eyebrow at how Nigerian male artists or male artists in general charge.
This is not just about the music industry in Nigeria; this pay disparity exists across all industries and sectors worldwide. According to Payscale: “the gap varies by industry; the legal profession has the worst discrepancy at 61%, while arts, entertainment and sports come in well above average at 96%.”
Among different issues women face in the workplace, such as sexualisation, misrepresentation and underrepresentation, sexual harassment and bullying of all sorts, women still have to fight for equal pay for doing an equal amount of work in 2025.
