Observers disagreed and said that Nigerian music legends such as Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, Majek Fashek and many of others were popular on the international stage in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
By Olawale Lamina
Wave making afrobeats musician, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has declared that D’banj was the first Nigerian musician to achieve global stardom.
Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo, known professionally as D’banj, is a singer and rapper.
Davido proved that Nigerian artists were not getting international bookings until after the global success of D’banj’s 2012 hit single labelled ‘Oliver Twist’.
At a recent interview with Apple Music, Davido claimed that D’banj’s international acclaim brought about a paradigm shift on which the African music started gaining popularity in the Western.
“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,” the afrobeat star stated.
Despite D’banj’s contributions, some critics and observers have disagreed with Davido’s affirmation that he was the first Nigerian musician to achieve international stardom.
Observers disagreed and said that Nigerian music legends such as Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, Majek Fashek and many of others were popular on the international stage in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
Likewise, 2Baba, formerly known as 2Face’s hit song, ‘African Queen’ had won many international awards and was used as a soundtrack of the popular American romantic comedy ‘Phat Girlz’ (2006), years before D’banj’s ‘Oliver Twist’ was released, critics had claimed.
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