Few months back I published an article on Why Davido is arguably the most hardworking and evolved Nigerian artist. It was majorly a sweep through his career progress from the inception till early 2017. The end of 2017 have rolled out nothing but pure greatness and more efforts on his path, furthermore verifying the topic of my first article.
His covered milestone and dominance in amount of content (hits) and their buzz on digital platforms and airplay for 2017 went over the roof.
He kicked off the year with 'IF' which is certified the biggest Nigerian (I say African) song of the year by different media houses. IF, had the longest chart topping period of the year. It was everywhere, bumped by international artists like Omarion, Justin skye and R. Kelly, who blessed the joint with a heavenly remix that would probably be responsible for lotta unplanned babies.
He followed up with 'Fall' as his second single for the year. As an already created pattern for him, the choice of lyrics were quite playful and engaging. He coined out another catch phrase "money fall on you" preceding the "30 billion for the account" off his previous single. Fall hit the air facing a legion of brutal critics with their fangs all bared out thirsty for lapses in the content. It went under pure scrutiny and apparently, it thrived regardless gunning straight up for the number one itunes spot overthrowing 'If' from the top. That was such a bully move but hey! This kinda bullying is allowed in music. Personally I vibed with the high key adlibs he infused in the bridge of the song. He's obviously not taking no for an answer as regards to his vocals and man is really slaying it. The Visuals was crazy and very professional. Top notch styling with the ball party and all the bougie costumes and the locations were a home kill. Shot abroad by daps and the youtube views speak for the quality of the craft.
Just some week into the bang of 'Fall' he dropped 'Pere' to obviously water down the thirst and cravings of Nigerian audience for an international collaboration. He decided to make it threesome or four (since rae sremmurd is a duo) putting on Rae sremmurd and Young thug on the joint, He shared the hool with RS and split em into verses and young thug gracing the first verse. Pere is an Afro trap with a combo of English and yoruba language. Something I'll surely grind to any day but suprisingly, Pere didn't do as good as IF and FALL did regardless of the international acts he had on it and the extra influence they pose to add to it. But it just goes a long way to show how big he can make of a track without an international collaboration. The video was shot by Sesan and this time around it was set in a single warehouse location as opposed to his usual high taste and sophisticated locations. The lighting, Cinematography, styling, scenery and automobiles did the job and it came out crispy and world class standard.
Post Pere release, he invested more time in his 30 billion tour which was ongoing before now and turned out to be the biggest and most successful tour by a Nigerian artist in terms of coverage in continents and line up of sold out events. He filled stadiums in the last part of the tour that rolled through many african countries. He went on to venture into fashion, patnering with Orange couture to create a clothing franchise off his hit single 'IF' with the song title crested in a double or triple line pattern on the side of the jacket.
He came through for the fourth time with FIA. There's gotta be an issue IF you don't FALL in love with the song FIA (you see what I did there?). A large chunk of the song were pretty personal to him and he just purged on it. Following the man all these years it's quite obvious he's an emotional person and it's only usual to channel all those emotions into a song. You get to connect with your audience on a whole new level. He talked about "when the boy dey hunger" and people disbelieved that part asap. Well. All i got to say about that is we're not in people's life from the inception and we mostly get to see the successful and happy part, then we assume things. If he said he was hungry at a point, let the man be. His vocals were undeniably good and ear soothing especially the "you for dey for me" part. There's a requirement for a shut eye when singing to that part for the amount of emotions it trigger. FIA became an instant hit from the release day. The audience were singing along word for word at a show he did just few days after the release. Ain't that some undiluted greatness?
People were half way tryna figure out what hit them with FIA and the threw another jibe with 'like dat'. It has been habitual for davido to pull stunts like this which he alone has got the nerve to consistently. He did from the years of his debut with Ekuro and overseas, Gbon Gbon and all of you, Gobe and one of a kind, Skelewu and Aye, Tchelete and owo ni koko, Coolest kids in Africa and How long, then pulled it repeatedly in 2017 with his 5 songs all back to back hits. Like dat was pretty urban and contemporary, from the Instrumental and packed lyrics talking about having a wild and good time. The Visuals was beyond awesome! The styling was out of ordinary, the scenery was a bit futuristic which is quite a twist from the usual.
The concluding part of the year smiled on him continously with a double win at the MTV Ema in the 'Best African act' and 'Best worldwide act' category. Officially the first african to bag two plaques in a single night for the award show. He also got booked as the first african act to perform at the MOBO awards where he took home the Best African act award of the night.
A compiled list of the top 5 most searched songs in Nigeria came up and three of his songs (If, fall and fia) were on the top 5. This is the type of allowed bullying I'm talking about. The list from Ghana most searched came up as well and his song made it to the top 5. His two videos for IF and FALL made him the first and only african artist to get over 30 million youtube views for two different videos in single year. Lit thang! End of the year and he bagged some sorta deal with first bank Nigeria which he shared on his social media handle, though the details are yet to be x-rayed.
Well. Check the statistics man, he done own 2017 with ease. I rest my case.
Thank you for reading.
Catch me on Twitter and IG @Iam_dr_moh
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