By Ediale Kingsley
On the Top 10 list of most viewed Nigerian Music Videos on YouTube, Davido’s songs, Fall and If dominates. Fall was uploaded 3years ago and is now the most viewed at 185 million views. If was also uploaded the same year and has attracted 117 million views to sit on the number 6th spot.
Burna Boy is the only other Nigerian artiste that features twice on the list. With Ye and On The Low, both songs fetched him 109 million and 161 million views respectively. And the uploads were done in less than 3 years. Actually On The Low is 1year ago, and Ye is 2 years ago. Burna Boy just overtook Sinach, who was sitting pretty on the second spot before On The Low gained 1 million view over her Waymaker song.
Yes, Waymaker is the most viewed gospel song in the land and also the 3rd most viewed song in general. The first lady of music business in Nigeria first uploaded that video 4 years ago. The only other lady joining her on the Top 10 list is Yemi Alade. With Johnny that was uploaded 6years ago. No Tiwa Savage here. Sinach and Yemi Alade are the queens Nigerians would first see before they go see other female music birds.
Strange? Well, for all the sexiness displayed in video after video, you’d think Tiwa should be here. Ironically, Nigerians don’t care more about the flesh and showings of the flesh. There’s something in Waymaker and Johnny that keeps them glued. It’s quite also worthy to note that both videos have strong messages. While one talks about God, the other talks about man. Sinach talks about the dependability in God and Yemi sings about the promiscuity of man.
A complete capsule though. As Yemi Alade’s visuals paints a cheating Johnny in trouble. The video takes a serious societal issue and diced it into fun, comedy and dramatic commotion. Featuring the star energies of Bovi and Alexx Okubo. Yemi Alade desires to be mother of African music. She is aggressive with that dream. In the way she brands and introduces herself.
Her lyrical matings with Angelique Kidjo is one of such great efforts. On the other hand, Tiwa Savage has a different approach. She want’s to be the queen of Nigeria music and her resolutions are evident in the collabos, hits and hard work. It’s important to note that her deliberate approach to make everyone go gaga about her adventures with Wizkid hasn’t really paid of in terms of views. Even WizKid’s Fever song is not on this list.
Where are all the music videos where ladies’ asses and nudes have predominantly taken front seats? How come it’s Sinach’s no-nude-woman-in-any-showglass that’s rocking the chart? Well now we know that the quality of the message is king.
No, Olamide’s Pawon is no where to be found. All the street immorality displayed in the videos are not as sought after. You can go compare the views — Pawon is only 6.7 million views.
Okay, back to the list. At number 4, After 4 years of upload, Tekno has Pana song doing 139 million views.
Yemi Alade’s Johnny, after 6 years, is at number 5 with 123 M V.
RunTown’s Mad Over You is number 7, after 3 years, and has attracted 112 million views. Burna Boy’s Ye is number 9 most viewed (he also occupies number 2 with On The Low).
Korede Bello’s Do Like That has the number 9 spot to my surprise. It must be those diehard fans that keeps praying for another GodWin song, or something else. But he’s done 107 million views with that video after 3 years.
Now you are wandering, where are the Tuface’s and Asa’s of this world? Aren’t they getting views? Well I don’t think they are getting as much views. Only PSquare’s Personally manages to enter the Top 10. At spot 10 with a song uploaded 7 years ago, the twins do well to attract 101 million views.
So there, top 10! Davido rules, no doubt. He does in great fashion. Even his Fem song that is just 1 month old is already doing 10million views. Compare that to the Ladipo and Simi’s Know You song that arrested our attentions during the Corona Virus lockdown period. After 3 months, the collaborative effort has only gathered 4.9 million views. Teni’s Billionaire song is 4.7mv after 11 months. Her Uyo Meyo is 5.7mv after 1year.
Davido is a monster when it comes to views attraction.
When he collaborates with other talents, they enjoy the grace as well. For instance see Kizz Daniel. That Laye song that was a hit could only gather 19 million views after 5years of upload. Now compare that to the One Ticket song that featured Davido. A whooping 36 million views is recorded in just 1 year. Far more than the 26 mv Yeba could do for 3years, or the 4.8 m v that Woju gathered in 6 years.
Why is Davido this huge? From Duro to Fem, between these hits after hits, he has done great things consistently with style, grace and funds. Yes, Davido has a singing style. He is blessed with a unique voice, it took me quite a long time to notice this. Haters say it is froggy. But I disagree, that the peculiar voice is bad. It is enjoyable. I don’t think there’s any other way I’d have wanted Fall, Fia, If, Fem and others to be sang.
As far as music making goes, Davido is a boss. And arguably number one in Nigeria. Add that to his charity works, family heritage, music team, extended businesses and what you have at hand is one Super Duper Star — you can’t find any other Nigerian Music star that is as big as Davido at the moment. Only 2 others come close.