Few stars come bigger than Davido. Starting with 2012 debut Omo Baba Olowo, the Nigerian American singer-songwriter pioneered a distinct blend of Afrobeats, R&B and hip-hop across five albums that earned him as many Grammy nominations.
With one of the biggest global social media followings for an African artist, he could be forgiven for resting on his laurels, but on his sixth album, Oriadé, he returns to where it all began. “Omo Baba Olowo is a Yoruba term but my following four were all in English,” he tells Apple Music.
“For Oriadé, I wanted to get back to my roots. It’s a title that refers to your destiny, and so I wanted to pay tribute to my journey so far on the album, as well as take it into the future.”
The result is a genre-spanning collection that effortlessly veers from the classic Davido Afrobeats love-song sound of “Julie” to the Afro-house references of “Gimme Dat Ting”, the dance-floor focus of “I Know Who I Be” and the lively Yoruba and French lyricism of “Yaya”.