WHO IS DAVIDO… With Real names; David Adedeji Adeleke, he is a Nigerian-American singer, songwriter and producer born on November 21, 1992, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Who Is Davido ‘s Daddy? His father Adedeji Adeleke is one of Nigeria`s most prominent business magnates and his late mother Vero Adeleke was a university lecturer.

Davido is the youngest of five siblings and his father’s second son. He attended the British International School in Lagos, and at the age of 16, he moved back to the United States to study business administration at Oakwood University in Alabama.

While at Oakwood, Davido started developing some interest in music, bought musical equipment and decided to start making beats. He formed a musical group with his cousins B-Red and Sina Rambo named KB International.

Along the line, Davido decided to drop out of Oakwood University to pursue music full-time and relocated to London, where he underwent some intense vocal training to strengthen his vocal abilities.

After returning to Nigeria in 2011, Davido paused his music career in a bid to honor his father by enrolling at Babcock University for a university degree, which he`d abandoned while he was at Oakwood.

It`s also rumored that when Davido came to Nigeria to pursue a music career, his father made sure to disrupt the venue of some of his paid events in order to get him arrested due to the fact that he`d run away from both school and home just because of a music career.

In July 2015, he graduated from Babcock with a degree in music after his father paid the university to start a music department for an inaugural class of one student.

Davido started working on his debut studio album Omo Baba Olowo in 2011. The project was a mixture of Afrobeats and hip hop. Davido worked with producers Jay Sleek, Maleek Berry, GospelOnDeBeatz, Spellz, Dokta Frabz, Mr. Chidoo, Theory Soundz and Shizzi on his debut project.

Omo Baba Olowo also features guest appearances from Naeto C, Sina Rambo, B-Red, Kayswitch, Ice Prince and Tu-Face Idibia (2Baba).

Although it received critical reviews from the Nigerian music space, who attacked its lyrical content and Davido’s songwriting abilities, the album won Best R&B/Pop Album and received a nomination for Album of the Year at The Headies in 2013.

It was also nominated for Best Album of the Year at the 2013 Nigeria Entertainment Awards.

Back When was released as the album’s lead single on May 7, 2011. It was produced by Davido and recorded in London. It featured a guest verse from a Nigerian Emcee, Naeto C.

The album’s second and standout single Dami Duro, was jointly produced by Davido and Shizzi. In an interview, Davido said he recorded the song in August, 2011, and it was leaked three months later because he sent it to a couple of his friends. The music video for Dami Duro was released in January 2012.

In 2013, Davido released a slew of monster hit tracks that cemented his legacy in the industry, moving on from the decent performance of his debut studio album. GOBE, a song produced by Shizzi.

Gobe shot Davido up to the next level of his career, following it up with another record-breaking smashing hit song Skelewu.

Skelewu was a certified hit, and Davido has to shoot two different videos for the song, after the initial one was leaked despite run outs that Davido didn`t really like the video. He later shot the second video in the United Kingdom with Moe Musa.

By 2014, Davido kickstarted the year with AYE, another smash hit written by Runtown and produced by T-Spize. In 2014, Davido bagged an MTN endorsement deal, and his single Good Life (Tchelete) was distributed by MTN callertunez platform as part of a forward thinking music partnership. In June 2015, Davido released another monster feature with Meek Mill, a trap song titled Fans Mi. He teased fans with the audio and behind-the-scenes photographs of the video.

In January 2016, Davido announced via Twitter that he`d signed a record deal with Sony Music; but his announcement was met with mixed reactions, disbelief being the major trail. The record label however put out a press release to confirm the deal.

Davido’s contract with Sony requires him to release two albums while still retaining the rights to his music and performances.

Davido founded his own record label Davido Music Worldwide (DMW) a few months after signing with Sony Music. He signed Dremo, Mayorkun at the beginning, later including other acts to the roster including Yonda, Peruzzi, Fresh VDM, among others.

In July 2016, Davido announced that he`d signed another record deal with RCA records. Davido’s contract with a major label required that his album release have international appeal so as to make it possible for global distribution.

In October 2016, he released a 5-track EP Son of Mercy which was targeted at the American market but certainly refused to take flight. The EP featured appearances from Simi, Tinashe and Nasty C.

He later went back to renegotiate his contract with SONY over issues of creative control. He`d lost traction back home as a major music export, and he needed to go back to his roots.

By 2017, Davido came back into the scene after 2016s lackluster year with IF and Fall, which both turned out to be record breaking smash hits globally. While If was certified Diamond in South Africa, Fall became the longest charting Afrobeats song on the billboard at the time.

In January 2019, Davido sold out The O2 Arena in London, becoming the first solo African artist to do so after Wizkid headlined a concert there in 2018. By July, his track with Chris Brown, Blow My Mind had filled the airwaves, and he was gearing towards the release of his second studio album, A Good Time.

The album contained some of his previous releases and also featured collaborations with artists including Summer Walker, Gunna, A Boogie and Chris Brown.

A Good Time dropped to massive acclaim, it is currently the most streamed African album of all time on streaming platforms and was also the first album to cross a billion streams.

In 2020, Davido dropped his third studio album, A Better Time, with features from Nicki Minaj, Lil Baby, Chris Brown, Young Thug, CKay, Tiwa Savage, etc. The album`s lead single FEM broke his previous record for most views in the first 24 hours of release with over 1.8 Million views in less than 24 hours.

With a decade long career in his pockets, it is definitely the time to be alive for David Adeleke. His hard work and perseverance over the years have directly resulted in him becoming one of the greatest music exports out of Africa ever.