How Davido Rose to Fame

Internationally acclaimed star “David Adedeji Adeleke” popularly known as “Davido” has over time built

one of the most successful careers and brands coming out of Nigeria (Nigeria Music Industry) and Africa in general.

The singer was born on the 21st of November 1992, in Atlanta, Georgia to Nigerian business mogul

“Adedeji Adeleke” and his mother “Vero Adeleke” were university lecturers. His steady and

glamorous rise to fame has been a result of hard work despite coming from a privileged background.

Davido’s introduction to music started at Oakwood University in the Alabama United States where he

was to study business administration. The singer reportedly bought musical equipment while at the

university and began creating beats on his own.

He also worked with his cousins who are currently in the music industry B-red and Sina Rambo.

Before his rise to fame, he did not have it so rosy after dropping out of school to pursue music as a full-time

time career. He relocated to London where he worked on his vocals and returned to Nigeria in

2011 upon request by the father Adedeji Adeleke.

After returning to Nigeria, he put his music career on hold and enrolled at Babcock University to

pursue a degree in music. The decision was made to honor his father’s wish for him to get a

university degree.

Davido started work on his debut album way back in 2011, the “Omo Baba Olowo” album which means

Son of a Rich man is a mixture of afrobeat and Hip hop.

Many singles from the album went on to receive frequent airplay and the album went on to win Best

R& B/Pop Album and received a nomination for Album of the Year at The Headies 2013.

His enviable career has evolved over the last 10 years, with many awards and internationally acclaimed

discography to show for it. He is one of the few African artists to sell out the O2 Arena more than once.

After signing a multimillion-dollar deal with Sony Music in 2016, his career took another step, creating a new era

was created. He became bagging international awards and features from the top international artist in

his music.

He was catapulted to global fame and music distribution, founding his music label DMW in 2016 Davido

has matured over the years nurturing talents such as Mayorkun, Peruzzi, Dremo, and many more artists

who is today doing well in the music industry?

His fan base popularly called 30 Billion Gang (30 BG) has made him the most followed afrobeat artist

across multiple social media platforms. He holds several notable achievements in his discography such as

2 billion global streams and 1 billion video views,  earning over 30 awards internationally including the

MOBO for Best African Act, the MTV EMA for Best African Act and Best International Act, two MTV Africa

Music Awards, a BET Awards for ‘Best African Act’ and ‘Best International Act’ (2018), two Nigerian Teen

Choice Awards for ‘Top Featured Artist’ and ‘Choice Male Artist.

In 2019 he released his second studio album A Better Time which has been streamed by over 1.2 billion

times, the singer has described the album as having a very personal meaning to him as he put a lot of

personal effort into its success. It was in 2019 that Davido became the first solo African Artiste to sell out

London’s O2 Arena.

His hard work on A Better Time paid out as it debuted on billboards 200 album chart and

generated over 600 million streams with lots of certified hits featuring international artists such as

Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, Young Thug, etc.

2019 was a big year for the singer as his smash single ‘Fall’ which is now certified gold in the US and

Canada created massive waves in the US and went on to become the longest run of an afrobeat single

on the Billboard Charts.

Fall was one of the most shazam searched songs in the United States and the song is widely

recognized to date as the No.1 ranked Afrobeats music video on YouTube music gaining over 210 million

views and putting his overall views on the platform to over 1 billion.

Currently, the critically acclaimed and highly sought-after singer has five albums to his name and several

Eps. He has generated over 2 billion global streams and was recently handpicked by FIFA to collaborate

with other international stars on the 2022 world cup official soundtrack titled Hayya Hayya (Better

Together).

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