David Adedeji Adeleke, popularly known
by his stage name Davido, was born in
November 21, 1992 to the family of
Chief Deji and Late Mrs. Vero Adeleke in
Atlanta, Georgia. His father, Chief Deji
Adeleke is a very wealthy business man
in Nigeria(hence his popular nickname
“Omo Baba Olowo, meaning ‘Child of a
rich man’), while his mother late Dr.
Vero Adeleke, was a university lecturer.
Davido and his family relocated back to
Nigeria from America and being a young
man from a wealthy family, Davido
attended elite schools including British
International School and Babcock
University, where he’s studying Business
Administration Part-time.
Though he came from a very wealthy
family, Davido decided to pursue his
dream which has always been to make
music. He started singing at the tender
age of 11. Davido will later admit that his
love for music came from his late mother
who passed away in 2003. Losing his
mother has been the most traumatic
experience he has had. He said: “…she’s
the reason I do what I do…. she loved to
entertain and I plan on carrying that
legacy…”.
At the age of 18, Davido set up a record
label called HKN Music, jointly owned
by him and his older brother, Adewale
Adeleke. In 2011, 18 year old Davido
released his debut album ‘Omo Baba
Olowo’, while on May 7, 2011, Davido
produced and released his first song
“Back When”. The song served as the
album’s lead single and received
frequent airplay. In October 2011,
Davido released ‘Dami Duro’ which
immediately became a hit! ‘Dami Duro’
topped music charts, and that was the
song that really brought him into public
consciousness. The music video for
“Dami Duro” was released on January 8,
2012. It was shot and directed in Lagos
by Clarence Peters.
In 2013, Davido began recording his
second studio album. On February 25,
2013, he released “Gobe” as the
upcoming album’s lead single. The song
was produced by Shizzi. The second
single from the album was “One of a
Kind” which was released on May 13,
2013. “Skelewu” was the third single
from that album and it turned out to be
one of the most popular hit songs in
Nigeria in 2013. It was ranked 5th on the
list of the top 10 songs of 2013. The song
also peaked at number 1 on Afribiz’s
Top 100 chart. There was a little
controversy after the release of
the ‘Skelewu’ music video. Shortly after
the release of the Sesan Ogunro-directed
video, Davido took to Twitter to debunk
the video and said that someone
had betrayed him by releasing it. He also
said he’ll re-shoot the video with Moe
Musa, a UK based music video director.
This caused a mild drama in the
entertainment scene as Sesan considered
Davido’s declaration immature. Sesan
said that Davido was satisfied with his
contributions to the music video and that
it would be immature for Davido and his
management to release inaccurate
statements in order to defame his brand.
On October 21, 2013, the official music
video for the single, shot and directed in
London by Moe Musa, was uploaded
onto YouTube.
A dance competition with a cash prize of
$3000 (N480,000) was held days after
the release of the song. Davido uploaded
an instructional dance video onto
YouTube and asked fans to upload videos
of themselves dancing to “Skelewu”. On
October 10, 2013, Davido announced
that Bello Moshood Abiola had won the
competition.
Davido released hit song “Aye” on
February 2, 2014. The song was
produced by T Spice, while the music
video was directed by Clarence Peters.
Shortly after that, precisely April 30,
2014, Davido released single “Tchelete
(Goodlife)” featuring South African duo
Mafikizolo.
Being a very young, handsome and
successful artiste, Davido is NOT
controversy-free! In February 2012, 19
year old Davido trended worldwide on
Social media; with thousands
commenting on the pictures showing him
in bed with 18-year-old undergraduate
Sonia Jumbo.
Different images showed were Sonia
was fondling and kissing him while he
was asleep. In one, she’s seen licking his
tattoo!
In mid-2014, Davido and fellow music
artiste, Wizkid started throwing
mysterious jabs at each other online!
Davido and Wizkid are among the
biggest music artistes in Nigeria and they
both have an identical fan-base. The beef
seems to have started when Wizkid
posted a coded message on his instagram
page. Davido took offense at that and
also posted a message which was
apparently directed back at Wizkid
The music heavywights continued to
trade coded words back and forth,
though not calling the other person by
name. Insiders allege that there has been
a superiority battle between them. The
two have finally settled their differences
though!
He has also been criticized for being in
the habit of flaunting his wealth and
possessions!
Davido is known to be very funny and
easy-going. He has worked with
numerous music artistes including Naeto
C, Wizkid, Ice Prince, 2face, Olamide,
Lynxxx and Skales. He is also the winner
of many local and international awards,
including Best International Act at the
BET Awards and Artist of the year at the
MTV Africa Music Video Awards! Davido
is also an ambassador to some top
organizations.
There’s no doubt, Davido has written his
name in the sands of time at such a
young age! Nigeria’s music history
cannot be written without Davido’s
name featuring in it prominently
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