Stanley Omah Didia, known professionally as Omah Lay, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. He gained widespread recognition in early 2020 after his self-produced single, "Bad Influence", went viral on social media. He is also known for being featured alongside Alpha P on the official Masterkraft's remix of

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...

's 2021 single, "

Peaches The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fuz ...

", as well as another collaboration with the latter on "

Attention Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. William James (1890) wrote that "Atte ...

" in 2022. Lay won the Next Rated award at the 2020 Headies Awards.

Early life

Stanley Omah Didia was raised in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt. He hails from

Ikwerre, Rivers Ikwerre is a Local Government Area in Rivers State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is in the town of Isiokpo. The postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, ...

Local Government Area in

Rivers State Rivers State, also known as Rivers, is a state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed in 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include: Imo to the north, Abia and Akwa Ib ...

. He attended Comprehensive High School in

before proceeding to the

University of Port Harcourt The University of Port Harcourt is located in Choba in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, Nigeria. It was established in 1975 as University College, Port Harcourt and was given university status in 1977. The University of Port Harcourt was rank ...

. He comes from a musical family and his grandfather played instruments for the singer Celestine Ukwu before he died in 1977. Lay's father played the drums.

Career

Lay started out in a rap group under the stage name "Lil King." He later moved on to songwriting and music producing, which went largely uncredited, and as a result of that, he released "Do Not Disturb" in April 2019. "Hello Brother" was released a month after. He signed to a record label named KeyQaad in June 2019, and took a seven month break. During the break, he worked on his debut EP, ''Get Layd.'' He told

OkayAfrica OkayAfrica (stylized as okayafrica) is a digital media platform dedicated to African culture, music and politics. Founded in 2011 by Vanessa Wruble and Ginny Suss as a sister site to The Roots frontman Questlove's Okayplayer, the site has become ...

, "I started working on it August f 2019 At some point I had to go off social media, stay away from a lot of things and keep my head straight to get the project right. The first song I'd recorded on ''Get Layd'' was 'Bad Influence.' I'd done that way before the songs we had to put on the project." Following the break, he released "Bad Influence," which became the most streamed Nigerian song on Apple Music at the end of 2020. On 14 February 2020, Lay released "You," his first official single. He released his five-track debut EP, ''Get Layd'' on 22 May 2020. The EP peaked at number one on the Nigerian

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

charts. All five songs from the EP reached the top 15 of the Apple Music charts for Nigeria, with "You" peaking at number one. In October, Lay appeared on

Olamide Olamide Gbenga Adedeji (born 15 March 1989) is a Nigerian rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. Widely regarded as one of the biggest and most influential artists in Africa, he has been instrumental to the launching of the careers ...

's album ''

Carpe Diem is a Latin aphorism, usually translated "seize the day", taken from book 1 of the Roman poet Horace's work ''Odes'' (23 BC). Translation is the second-person singular present active imperative of '' carpō'' "pick or pluck" used by Horace t ...

'', on the track "Infinity", which topped the Apple Music charts for Nigeria. On 20 November, Lay released his second five-track EP, ''What Have We Done''. All five tracks reached the top 12 of the Apple Music charts for Nigeria, with "Godly" reaching number one. On 3 July 2020, Lay was the first artist highlighted for Apple's Africa Rising Campaign to spotlight African talent. In December 2020, he was included in

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been cod ...

's annual "Hot for 2021" list. He was the first African artist featured on

Audiomack Audiomack is an on-demand music streaming and audio discovery platform that allows artists and creators to upload limitless music and podcasts for listeners through its mobile apps and website. In February 2021, ''Billboard'' announced Audiomack ...

's #Up Now program for emerging artists; was included in

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

's "20 artists to watch in 2021"; and was named

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

's Amplified International Artist of the Month for November 2020. He is currently signed to Dvpper Music Distribution in Nigeria, and

Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer ...

for international distribution. He was nominated in four categories at the 2020 Headies Awards, winning the Next Rated award. On 25 June 2021, Lay was featured alongside fellow Nigerian singer Alpha P on Nigerian producer Masterkraft's official remix of Canadian singer

's single, "

". On 8 July 2021, Lay released a new single, "Understand". On 3 March 2022, he released a collaboration with Bieber, "

", which serves as the second collaboration between the two artists.

Controversy

On 14 December 2020, Lay was arrested alongside

Tems Temilade Openiyi (born 11 June 1995), known professionally as Tems, is a Nigerian singer. She rose to prominence after she was featured on Wizkid's 2020 single "Essence," which reached the top ten of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 after the releas ...

after they performed in a show in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

. The Ugandan Police authority identified violation of COVID-19 lockdown protocols as the reason for their arrests. The artists felt they were set up. Two days later, the Ugandan government released the two, apologised for the arrests and cleared them of wrongdoing.

Political views

Lay has expressed his support for the #EndSARS campaign in Nigeria. He told ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'', "People need to know these protests are purely about the people, with no political undertone whatsoever. Police harass, extort, beat, and kill us just for being young and trendy, with no consequences. This has gone on long enough, and we are saying enough is enough and demanding government action."

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Guest appearances

Production discography

2018

Kidoben Ace * "Caught Up"

2019

Klug Ali * "Opium" Sikiboi * "One Day"

2020

Omah Lay – ''Get Layd'' *2. "Lo Lo" *4. "Bad Influence" Moveek * "Flossin" Omah Lay – ''What Have We Done'' *4. "Confession"