🥤Nigeria is at the world cup, sort of

👋 Good morning, and happy weekend, everyone. If I'm being honest, the only thing on my agenda is sleep; it's been a long week. But before I clock out, here's a piece of finance advice I came across online that stuck with me: if you're young and have some time on your hands, spend it obsessing over US stocks. Find a side hustle or a main job to fund it, treat the whole thing like an obsession, and give it 5–10 years. The claim is that your odds of real financial independence will go way up.

In this edition: this week in pop culture, why we like the new trending song, our community town hall, and more.

If you’re enjoying this, don’t forget to subscribe and join The Juice community. We’re building this together ♡.

Question of the week

Why did you break up with your partner?

Community Town Hall at the bottom of this newsletter

🗞️ THIS WEEK IN POP CULTURE

🎵 MUSIC

Tems' What You Need climbed to a new Billboard Hot 100 peak at number 53, and she's set to perform at the Obama Presidential Center grand opening on June 18. Biggest Tems, not the little one at all.

👗 ART

Njideka Akunyili, daughter of the late Prof. Dora Akunyili, was commissioned to paint the Obamas' first presidential library portrait, The Obamas: Springing Forth. It now hangs in the Hope and Change Lobby of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

📚 LITERATURE

Ake Festival rolls into its 14th edition with a theme for the moment: Native Intelligence. In the age of AI, it asks whose intelligence we're really building the future on, and sends us back to our origins to make sense of what's ahead. We can’t wait!

📽️ FILM

South African series The Polygamist hit number 1 on Nigerian Netflix, then promptly stirred up a debate about whether Nigerians can really cancel bad behaviour (the xenophobia unfolding in South Africa). A little rich, if you ask us, because just the other week, Nigerians were trooping into the purple SA rave, and SA DJs basically hold together our playlists. Pick a side, people.

🏛️ POLITICS

A clip of Peter Obi on a podcast is making the rounds: asked how he'd generate and distribute 10,000 megawatts of electricity, his answer set off a conversation about whether he's fit to lead. We'll stay out of the verdict, but we'll take someone who thinks over someone who eats the mic.

A 60-SECOND FAVOR (with a free Pulse Creator Collective spot up for grabs)

Heyyy,

To serve you better and provide more relevant and engaging content, we want to get to know you. Just a few questions, takes about a minute to answer, all optional.

As a thank-you, ONE random responder gets a free spot in the Pulse Creator Collective Paint and Sip happening here in Lagos this Sunday. 

→ [Take the survey — SURVEY LINK]

Be sure to take the full survey before 6 pm tomorrow to qualify. The winner will be sent the event details via mail. Exciting, right?

P.S. Your answers are confidential and can only be shared as anonymized totals, never anything tied to you personally.

MAIN SQUEEZE

Why we like the new trending song 

This week, a relatively unknown artist broke through almost overnight. Solana released Okunkun, and the track was generating conversation before it had even officially dropped. Its sound stood apart from much of what's currently in rotation, distinctive enough that it spread on momentum alone, without the usual marketing push.

To understand the reaction, we spoke with 5 cool members of the Pulse team about what makes Okunkun resonate, what they thought about it, and why it caught on so quickly.

Adeayo, entertainment editor

The novelty is the most defining characteristic of the song. Blending that synth pop production with Yoruba folk writing brings a fresh touch that’s instantly striking, engaging, and very different. 

When you listen to Okunkun, you travel across different eras of synth pop music from Madonna, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and even Carly Rae Jepsen while finding identity in its domestication. 

Novelty is important to capture an audience in the mainstream, and I think Solana and Killertunes have found a distinct sound.

Hillary, editor-in-chief

I think that yes, it’s refreshing and it’s also very encouraging because we’re in a time when people are adopting English more and more, and we’re actually seeing a death of many of our own languages.

So, between this Yoruba, afropop, indie, folk, we’re having people rap in Igbo, we’re having people rap in Hausa, I think that’s a great way to preserve our culture and also adapt with the times. 

But I’m not Yoruba, I don’t speak it or hear it, so if the video didn’t have subtitles, well. There are songs that I can sing in Yoruba, but I don’t know what they mean; I just like the vibe.

Ife, film reporter

I find it interesting. She’s singing in Yoruba, but there’s no real blending of artistry apart from the appearance of it. It sounds good, but there’s no local instrumentation, which I would have ignored if she did not have a shekere sitting in her lap in the visualizer. 

She looks the part, sings in the language, but it is a sound that would fit snuggly into a Western pop artist’s shelf of album demos. Like, at least, with the Lijadus, they were cooking with both sounds spectacularly; they made the instrumentation ours. 

Daniel, brand designer

So I think it’s a fresh way of looking at Nigerian music. I feel like artists need to be a lot more experimental with their work, and this is a perfect example of it

Ejiro, brand designer

The song is new and fresh. You know how music always feels in Nigeria, where everyone sounds like a Rema or another artist. What I’ve heard so far is totally new, and there’s something about the tempo. 

I actually wonder how the person managed to think about this, it takes me back, but also doesn’t sound way, way back. This lady probably got her inspiration from the Lijadu sisters, but it’s still distinct in its own way. The lyrics, the fact that it’s purely Yoruba, every word sounds poetic.

🔪 THE PEEL

Nigeria is at the World Cup, sort of

The Discourse: When it comes to the World Cup 2026, Nigeria may just be the sibling you’ve given a game controller that’s not connected to the console. He’s not in the game, but he is just as invested. While the Super Eagles may not have qualified for the global tournament this year, it hasn't kept Nigerians out of it in the least. 

Peeling it back: It’s been 8 years since the last time we got to play in the World Cup tournament. It may sting a little watching other teams play without the excitement of leaning too close to the television, waiting for a goal that moves us to the next stage. However, some would say there’s an upside to not getting paired with our fated World Cup rival, Argentina, and losing to them again (For the 6th time). 

However, I believe there’s much culture in the World Cup that’s not dependent on just watching your country’s team soaring through the tournament. Countries like Ghana and Senegal, whom we’ve adopted as siblings over the years, earn our support or comedic banter depending on the outcome of the match.

Sometimes, it may escalate briefly to comparing the conditions of our home countries for humor, before we are briefly reminded that not every country lacks constant electricity, and can rebut with yet another worn joke about a Ghanaian obsession with eggs. 

When countries like Ivory Coast and Cape Verde play, the internet becomes awash with photos of supporters from the country, and we’re reminded of the nature of the chatter about why there’s possibly one person from every country of the world with one Nigerian parent.

Also, don’t forget countries that we have assigned ourselves citizenship of because they’re playing against countries we’re not keen on, and so matches from Mexican and Brazilian teams are met with our support and temporary usernames like ‘Señor Tobi Gonzalez’.

We’re familiar with humor as a core emotion in the place of disappointment, so banter colors how we interact with the World Cup in our physical absence.

In the wake of all this, we’re not just enamored with the countries by name, but the internet gives us a chance to learn about players from other countries with stories and cultures that we find intriguing. The Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha’s compelling story concerning his family and his mother’s denied US visa stands out, and we’re likely to feel as though we’re enmeshed in the emotions that surround the tournament as well.

Of course, perhaps our golden export often remains Afrobeats. The opening ceremonies had Afrobeat stars Rema and Burna Boy perform to a global audience. It’s not the first time our music has been exported to the world stage through sports tournaments, but presents the world with the opportunity to continue to take part in our culture.

For some, it is a succour to being unable to watch the Super Eagles play again on the world stage this year. The soundtrack for the tournament itself is dotted with Nigerian afrobeats artists, and it probably helps us feel less left out to hear our music in the stadium when we troop to watch matches between the other African countries we’ve decided to band together with (and Mexico).

The core: Whereas the World Cup may not have our national team, we’re an important part of the global community still, and our presence — albeit not physical — continues to bring culture to the event, and we’ll savor every part of it.

Words by Jesimiel Williams.

🎵 PRESSED BY THE JUICE

Love can save the world, at least we hope it saves Nigeria. You can start the process by listening to our playlist, guaranteed to melt even the stony-hearted.

Don’t forget to save, we update frequently.

Do you have a song you’d like us to include? Put us on, reply to this mail, [email protected]

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

We asked Nigerian men from our community why they broke up with their partners

Anton

She posted me on social media and captioned it with “My Helper.”

Ayo

She doesn't seem to know exactly what she wants out of life. A 43-year-old mom of 2 living with her parents with a salary of 25k as a secondary school  teacher and not ready to explore other opportunities.

Tayo

I regret my decision to co-habit and live together. The girl was eating all the food. She was always eating. I lost about 10kg living with her.

Stanley

She had a child with another guy after we've been together for two years. I only just found out last month. It's not easy to suffer heartbreak.

Muyiwa

She was a serial cheater. I kept forgiving her until she couldn’t stand the shame and left.

Gbade

She said I am too loving. She always said I love her too much and I don’t shout at her, or get angry at her. Ended things when it was becoming too much.

If you enjoyed this, join 1.7M+ people sharing their wins, gist, advice, and even secrets. You'll love it. Come inside now!