Davido is one of Africa’s most prominent artists who rose to fame in 2011 with the release of his debut album titled ‘Omo Baba Olowo’. The album’s lead single was the song titled ‘Back Then’, but the song that put him on the African map and the one that topped most music charts, including the YFM music charts and GoldMyne’s top 10 songs of 2012 list was ‘Dami Duro’ featuring American-Senegalese hiphop artist Akon. The popularity of “Dami Duro” extended to the political world, where the governor of Oyo State in Nigeria Abiola Ajimobi sang the song while giving a speech at the
University of Ibadan . His 2014 single ‘Aye’ gained massive popularity on the continent, amassing over 27 million views on YouTube and winning numerous awards including Song of the Year at the 2014 Headies and Hottest Single of the Year at the 2014 Nigerian Entertainment Awards. ‘Skelewu’ was another smash hit from Davido which topped most music charts on the continent including reaching number 1 on Afribiz’s Top 100 chart. The dance for the song was very popular, with Davido releasing an instructional dance video for the song and creating a competition out the video were fans created and uploaded videos of themselves dancing to the song. Other popular hits include ‘Tchelete (Goodlife)’ which is a collaboration with South African pop duo Mafikizolo, ‘Naughty’ featuring Ivorian DJ Afafat and ‘Fans Mi’ featuring US rapper Meek Mill. Davido has won numerous awards including Music Video of the Year for ‘Aye’ at the 2014 Ben TV Awards, Best International Act: Africa at the 2014 BET Awards, Best Male West Africa at the 2015 Afrimmas and Best Male at the 2014 MTV Africa Music Awards. He is co-owner of the music label HKN Music, which he owns with his elder brother Adewale Adeleke.
