Spotify’s latest Valentine data signals that Nigerian listening is becoming more emotionally expansive, not more predictable. Across the Jan 1 to Feb 4 comparison window, Nigeria saw strong growth in mood-led playlist creation from 2024 to 2025, with rizz up +58%, simp up +66%, and yearn up +305%. From 2025 to 2026, we could see rizz up +82% and yearn up +170%. Together, these shifts point to a culture that is naming attraction, vulnerability, and longing in real time.

A New Language for Modern Love

On Valentine’s Day, Nigerian listeners moved between local and global love soundtracks, with Burna Boy, John Legend, and Billie Eilish appearing in the same emotional universe. What stands out is not one dominant mood but the growth of multiple moods at once. Using rizz and simp as love-coded signals, and yearn as a heartbreak-coded signal, Spotify data shows both sides rising sharply. Love-coded playlist, rizz behaviour grew by +58%  to +82% from 2024 to 2026, while heartbreak-coded behaviour yearn grew by +305% and then +170% over those same periods.

This is emotional literacy in action, with listeners using playlists to process what they feel without having to flatten it into one story.

Nigerian Gen Z is driving this change. Data points to a generation building a working vocabulary for modern relationships, one that allows confidence, tenderness, and uncertainty to exist side by side.

The Duality Generation

Among 18 to 24-year-olds on Valentine’s Day, nearly 60% of listeners skewed heartbreak, while almost 40% leaned into love. They are not choosing one emotion over another. They are holding both at once and building listening habits that reflect that complexity.

The pattern is visible across gender, too. Men accounted for over 65% in heartbreak and 61% in love song streaming, while women represented just over a third in both cases, showing that both groups are actively engaging the full emotional spectrum on the day.

Geographically, heartbreak listening is concentrated in urban centres, with Lagos leading, followed by Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, and Benin. The map is culturally telling. Young Nigerians in major cities are using music as a live emotional archive of romance, ambiguity, and recovery.

Sharing the Feeling

Nigerians are not processing these emotions in isolation. Valentine’s Day 2025 was the “Blendiest” day in the preceding year, signalling peak shared listening behaviour through Spotify Blend. Partners, friends, and crushes used collaborative playlists to merge Afrobeats, street-pop, and R&B into shared mood spaces.

Top Blend tracks on the day included  Fido’s Awolowo, Smur Lee’s, Shallipopi, ODUMODUBLVCK’s JUJU (with Smur Lee & Shallipopi),  BNXN, Rema’s “Fi Kan We Kan,” and Rema’s “OZEBA.” In direct song shares, listeners chose emotionally direct records such as Future’s “WORST DAY,” Drake’s “GIVE ME A HUG, Asake’s “WHY LOVE”,  Rema’s “Baby (Is it a Crime)”, and Drake’s “NOKIA”. The signal is clear: sharing is not just social behaviour, it is emotional communication.

Beyond Romance: Community, Friendships, and Faith

Valentine’s listening also shows Nigerians broadening the meaning of connection. Globally, Galentine playlist creation rose by over +70% year on year, with +20% growth already recorded this year. In Nigeria, this aligns with how friendship and peer support are increasingly central to how young listeners mark the day.

The podcast picture adds another cultural layer. Faith-based voices remained highly visible on 14 February, alongside relationship-centred conversations, reflecting a listening culture where romance, spirituality, and community wisdom coexist rather than compete.

Spotify also recorded a +20% increase in Valentine’s Day playlist creation globally in the latest comparable seasonal window, reinforcing that this period remains one of the strongest emotional moments in the listening calendar.

“Valentine’s Day in Nigeria is no longer a single-note romance moment. We are seeing listeners embrace love and heartbreak as equally valid emotional realities, and use music to move through both with honesty. What stands out is the confidence to name complex feelings and the willingness to share them with others,” says Phiona Okumu, Spotify’s Head of Music for Sub-Saharan Africa.

This year’s Valentine’s data presents a portrait of a generation redefining connection: emotionally fluent, culturally hybrid, community-oriented, and unafraid of contradiction.

Africa Magic has announced the premiere of Employee of the Year, a compelling three-part romantic drama set to air from Thursday, February 12, to Saturday, February 14, 2026, on Africa Magic Showcase (DStv Channel 151, GOtv Channel 8).

Led by Mena Sodje in a standout performance as Nana, the movie features a strong supporting cast, including Daniel Abua, Doris Okorie, Nnamdi Agbo, Yemi Solade, and other notable actors. Together, they bring depth and emotional nuance to a story rooted in the high-pressure world of real estate, where power, loyalty, and desire often collide.

Employee of the Year follows Nana, a junior realtor struggling to rise above obscurity, whose life takes a dramatic turn when she uncovers a dangerous plot to burn down her company. Her bravery earns her recognition as an unlikely hero, but the victory is short-lived when she discovers that the conspiracy runs far deeper than she imagined.

As the story intensifies, Nana learns the true mastermind behind the scheme, who then presents her with a chilling offer: her dream promotion in exchange for carrying out the very crime she once stopped. Caught between ambition and conscience, Nana must confront the cost of success and decide what kind of future she is willing to build.

With its mix of romance, suspense, and corporate drama, Employee of the Year explores the moral compromises often hidden behind professional success. The three-part movie will air exclusively on Africa Magic Showcase (DStv Channel 15, GOtv Channel 81) from February 12 –14, 2026.

Be sure to also take advantage of the ongoing We Got You offer, where you pay for your current package and DStv/GOtv upgrades you to the next higher package at no extra cost. The offer runs till February 28th, 2026.

Let’s talk about something not often discussed enough between African parents and their kids.

Not love, we already know there’s love. “Bonding”.

In many African households, love is loud in sacrifice but quiet in expression. Parents provide, protect, and work tirelessly. But sitting down, relaxing, and simply being present together doesn’t always come naturally.

If you grew up in an African home, you already understand this.

When mum or dad comes back from work, the atmosphere shifts. The TV volume drops. Someone suddenly remembers plates in the sink. Another person starts sweeping a spot that’s been clean since morning. Everyone just… behaves.

Not because there isn’t love, but because closeness often comes with formality. There’s respect. There’s discipline. But that soft, easy familiarity between parents and kids can be rare.

So we grow up sharing the same house but living in different worlds. Parents tired from work. Kids busy with school, chores, or their phones.

And yet, years later, what we remember isn’t the rules or the lectures. It’s the small moments. The random laughter. The evenings when everyone relaxed and forgot to be strict for a while.

Sometimes, bonding doesn’t need a big conversation or a “family meeting.”

Sometimes, it’s as simple as watching a movie together.

Just, “Come and sit down, let’s watch this.”

That small invitation can change the mood of the whole house. Conversations start. Jokes fly. Someone explains the plot too much. Someone else steals the remote. And before you know it, everyone is actually together.

The right movie helps.

Something light and stress-free like Mr. Bean’s Holiday on Movie Room Africa (GOtv Channel 51), where Bean’s clumsy adventure across France delivers effortless laughter for both kids and parents.

Or The LEGO Movie on M-Net Movies 3 (GOtv Channel 43), following Emmet, an ordinary LEGO figure thrown into an extraordinary adventure. Fast, funny, and packed with clever humour adults enjoy just as much.

For louder nights filled with commentary and laughter, A Madea Funeral on M-Net Movies 3 (GOtv Channel 43) brings family drama, secrets, and Madea’s unforgettable honesty. And for the same chaotic fun with a spooky twist, A Madea Halloween on Movie Room Africa (GOtv Channel 51) keeps everyone half-laughing, half-shouting at the screen.

On quieter evenings, Dolphin Tale on M-Net Movies 3 (GOtv Channel 43) offers something softer. The true story of a rescued dolphin and a young boy’s bond with her leaves the room quiet at the end, but in the best way.

The beauty is that these stories are already there on GOtv. No planning. No pressure. Just press play and sit together.

They’re not “serious bonding activities.” They’re just movies. And sometimes, that’s enough.

Because one day, your kids won’t remember the chores or how strict the rules were.

They’ll remember moments like, “Remember when we watched that movie together and couldn’t stop laughing?”

And that’s what stays.

Right now, subscribers can enjoy all these and more with the We Got You offer, available until 28 February 2026. Pay for your current package and get upgraded to the next package at no extra cost, giving you access to more channels, more shows, more moments together.

To subscribe, upgrade, or reconnect, download the MyGOtv App or dial *288#. You can also stream anytime with the GOtv Stream App.