“D’banj was first Nigerian artist to gain global popularity” – Singer Davido

Afrobeats singer David Adeleke, nicknamed Davido, claims that D’banj was the first Nigerian musician to reach global fame.

According to him, Nigerian artists were not gaining foreign bookings prior to the global popularity of D’banj’s 2012 smash track ‘Oliver Twist’.

In a recent interview with Apple Music, Davido stated that D’banj’s international success triggered a paradigm change, which resulted in African music finding momentum in the Western world.

He said, “D’banj was my first vision of a Nigerian artist taking over the world. No one in America was booking Nigerian artists for shows but that changed when I saw Kanye West in D’banj’s ‘Oliver Twist’ video on YouTube.

“It was because of the success of ‘Oliver Twist’ that Americans started booking D’banj, 2Face, P-Square and other African artists for shows. They were making about $1,000,000 per show. So I decided to switch and start doing African music because that’s where I am from.”

While D’banj helped to globalise African music, particularly Afrobeats, in its early stages of exportation, many observers dispute Davido’s assertion that he was the first Nigerian musician to reach international popularity.

In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Nigerian music giants such as Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Majek Fashek, and others rose to international prominence.

2Baba, originally known as 2Face, received multiple international honours for his hit song ‘African Queen’, which was utilised as the music of the smash American romance comedy ‘Phat Girlz’ (2006), years before D’banj’s ‘Oliver Twist’ was released.