Fave: Nigerian Singer, Career, EPs and Headies Award
Fave, whose full name is usually given as Godsfavour Ugochinyere Chidozie, is a Nigerian singer-songwriter who came to attention in 2019 and 2020 with short freestyle videos on Twitter, then broke through in 2021 with “Baby Riddim”. She won Rookie of the Year at The Headies in 2022, released two EPs, and has collaborated with Olamide, Simi and Davido. This profile replaces an older article that gave a different real name and a guessed net worth; neither is supported by the interviews and reference sources below.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Information and source |
|---|---|
| Stage name | Fave, short for “Favour” (The Guardian Nigeria) |
| Birth name | Godsfavour Ugochinyere Chidozie per the Guardian and OkayAfrica; Wikipedia lists it as Chidozie Godsfavour Ugochinyere |
| Date of birth | 13 March 2000 per Wikipedia (only source we found for the exact date) |
| Education | Law degree, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Rolling Stone; Wikipedia) |
| Breakthrough single | “Baby Riddim” (2021), released through Mr Eazi’s emPawa Africa |
| Award | Rookie of the Year, The Headies 2022 (Wikipedia) |
| EPs | Riddim 5 (January 2022) and Dutty Love (November 2024) |
Background and early life
Published accounts of Fave’s childhood differ in small ways, so it helps to separate what she has said herself from what reference sites say. In an OkayAfrica interview she said she was born in Lagos and moved to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, at the age of seven, and that the family moved often because of her father’s work as an architect. Rolling Stone reports that she has been singing since she was a young girl in Uyo, that her parents raised her in a Pentecostal church where the family sang in the choir, and that her gospel-heavy home shaped what she listened to. Wikipedia, by contrast, gives Anambra State as her place of origin and describes her as a middle child and only daughter. These accounts are not necessarily in conflict, since a person can be born in one place, raised in another and have family roots in a third, but we have not found a single authoritative document that settles it, so the article does not claim a state of origin or ethnicity.
Her stage name came from her first name. She told the Guardian that “Fave” was what she wanted as a social media handle but the platform considered it too short, so she added “szn” to it, and that the name Favour is where “Fave” comes from. Rolling Stone adds that she described the name as a “shortcut” she gave herself for music rather than a nickname people used earlier. The older version of this article gave her name as “Favour Ugochi Anosike”. We could not find that name in any interview or news report, and it has been removed.
University and the start of music
Fave studied law at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, in Osun State. Rolling Stone says she started college in 2017 and began putting music out in 2019, and that she completed her final exams in late 2021. She told The NATIVE that before 2019 she was “just a student”, that she had learned some makeup artistry as a side hustle in school, and that once she had access to a studio her first song came about and she has not done anything else since. Wikipedia lists her first single as “M.O.M.M.S.” (2019), described as standing for “Me or Mask My Sins”.
The turning point came in the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, when she posted freestyle clips on Twitter. According to Wikipedia, a verse over a beat produced by Jinmi Abdul went viral on the platform and drew positive reactions. The Guardian confirms that a viral freestyle caught the attention of rapper and singer Olamide. Her official debut single, “N.B.U” (short for “Nobody but U”), followed on 17 April 2020 according to Wikipedia, which says it reached number 64 on the Apple Music Top 100 in Nigeria.
Olamide, emPawa and “Baby Riddim”
Olamide featured Fave on two tracks, “Pon Pon” and “Want”, on his 2021 album UY Scuti. The Guardian calls those collaborations the result of her viral freestyle. Her own solo single “Beautifully” (2021), with a video directed by Clarence Peters, followed. Then came “Baby Riddim”. In the Guardian interview she explained that she knew Mr Eazi through Twitter, that they began to speak seriously shortly before the song was released, and that she made a licensing deal with his emPawa Africa label for the song. Wikipedia says she signed a year-long licensing deal in November 2021. It also says the song reached number one on the Nigerian TurnTable chart and was the number one Global Shazam Afrobeats record for six weeks in 2021. Those chart claims rely on Wikipedia and we did not check the charts themselves.
The licensing structure matters for accuracy. The older article described emPawa as her record label. The Guardian’s wording, and Wikipedia’s “licensing deal”, suggest a limited arrangement for particular releases rather than a long-term label contract. Wikipedia’s infobox currently lists a different label, Tumblar. Because we cannot see her contracts, we describe emPawa only as the imprint that released “Baby Riddim”.
Riddim 5 and the Headies
Fave released her debut EP, Riddim 5, on 20 January 2022. Wikipedia lists five tracks: “Obsessed”, “S.M.K”, “Kilotufe”, “Mr. Man” and “Baby Riddim”, and says it was the first 2022 project to reach number one on the Apple Music Top Albums chart in Nigeria. OkayAfrica’s profile, “There Is No Stopping FAVE”, was published around the release and describes her as a 21-year-old balancing school and music, which matches the 2000 birth year. In September 2022 she won Rookie of the Year at The Headies, according to Wikipedia, which cites Pulse Nigeria. She was also nominated for Most Promising Artist and Best Artist in African Reggae, Dancehall at the All Africa Music Awards, and for Best New Artiste at the Soundcity MVP Awards Festival. Wikipedia’s awards table also lists a 2023 Headies win for Songwriter of the Year for her work on Simi’s “Loyal”, which we could not confirm elsewhere.
Collaborations
Beyond Olamide, Wikipedia lists a string of features. She appears on Simi’s “Loyal” (2022) from the album To Be Honest, on Ajebo Hustlers’ “In Love”, and on “Kante” from Davido’s 2023 album Timeless, where she sings the chorus. Rolling Stone’s profile of her is framed around her relationship to Davido and to dancehall, and quotes her saying how much she loves Jamaica and the genre. This explains the dancehall inflection in her sound, which The NATIVE links to a childhood of soulful pop listening, naming Lorde, Sia and Adele as early influences.
Dutty Love
On 7 November 2024 she released her second EP, Dutty Love. Wikipedia lists seven tracks, including the earlier singles “Belong To You”, “Controlla” and “No Games” and the new songs “Juju”, “Complicated”, “Lose My Mind” and the title track, and says the project blends Afrobeats, R&B, amapiano and drill and explores toxic love and self-discovery. It says it debuted at number five on Apple Music’s Nigeria albums chart and charted in 13 countries. The Rolling Stone column that profiles her explains the phrase “dutty love” as a play on dancehall language for love that is messy, and ties it to her admiration of Sean Paul, whose music is interpolated in “No Games”.
Net worth and personal life
The earlier version of this article gave a net worth range. No reputable source publishes verified earnings for Fave, and streaming income, show fees and brand deals are private, so we have removed it and do not offer an estimate. We also do not include relationship details: none of the interviews we read discuss them, and speculation about a living person’s private life is not something this site will publish without a reliable source.
What we could not verify
- Her exact birth date and state of origin: the date comes from Wikipedia alone, and Wikipedia’s state (Anambra) differs from interview accounts of growing up in Lagos and Uyo.
- Her ethnicity and family details beyond what she has said in interviews, which we do not repeat.
- The exact terms and current status of her deal with emPawa Africa and any other label.
- Chart positions such as number one on the TurnTable chart and Shazam rankings: cited only by Wikipedia.
- The 2023 Headies Songwriter of the Year entry, which appears only in Wikipedia’s table.
- Net worth, earnings and any estimates, which are not publicly verifiable.
Sources
- Wikipedia
- The Guardian Nigeria
- The NATIVE
- Rolling Stone
- OkayAfrica
Last reviewed October 2026. If you spot an error, see our Corrections page.
