Davido live in London

2015 has been quite a year for singer Davido after becoming a father for the first time, winning Best Male at the MAMAs for the third time in a row and recording his second album. Ahead of his London concert on today (25 September) MTV headed to Davido’s rehearsals for a quick catch up.

In the hub of East London at 7PM on a chilly London night, Davido and the HKN crew arrived at the rehearsal space in high spirits despite having to endure London’s notoriously miserable weather for the past few days. We watched as rehearsals kicked off with classics like “Dami Duro”, “Gobe”, “All Of You” and ended with his new releases “Fans Mi”, “Owo Ni Koko” and “Dodo” (which reached number one on the Nigerian iTunes charts recently).

He tells MTV that originally the plan was to launch his new album in London first, but these plans have been pushed back, he says. “The delay was caused by the international collaborations. With that, you know you have to wait for clearance but the album is done. It’s going to be out this month or early next month,” said the twenty-two year-old Nigerian performer.

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His London show was initially announced as the first of only two launches (the second being in Lagos) but now Davido fans across the globe will be in for a treat as he plans to embark on a global album launch tour. “I’m actually launching the album in America and Dubai as well. We’re doing six different countries, London and Lagos are the first ones announced. We’re also going to South Africa, Ghana and Tanzania… [but] Lagos is the biggest one of course.”

No unreleased songs will be performed at the London concert on Tonight but the man of the moment explains, “People can expect to hear all my songs at the launches of course but my last concert was two years ago. A lot has happened in two years.”

MTV also spooke to him about his “Fans Mi” song and music video featuring American rapper Meek Mill. The final scene in the video is heavily influenced by Nigerian culture showing Davido eating a traditional Nigerian meal in true African style.

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“Meek didn’t even want to shoot that video in L.A, he wanted to shoot it in Lagos but because of scheduling I just said no let’s just do it here but I tried to make it as humorous as possible at the end to put that African twist because [Americans] like us for our African stuff. They always like being involved with what [Africans] are doing.”

On creating this new album, Davido expressed how a surprise in his personal life inspired the album, saying, “The personal highlight for me this year has been my daughter. That’s number one. Everybody’s happy; she came at the right time you know? She’s having a good time, she’s loved! She inspired a lot of the songs on the album; I recorded a lot of the songs whilst her mum was pregnant. The minute I finished the album, she came so the album has been done for a while now.”

Davido’s London concert is set to be a memorable on if he has anything to do with it. “You can expect a lot from the London show but I don’t want to ruin the surprise… Just wait on it!”

Davido will be backed by The Compozers band and the show will be hosted by UK comedian Edde Kadi and singer Rotimo. UK afrobeats duo YFS is confirmed to hit the stage as well as HKN label mates B-Red, Danagog and DJ Olu.

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Source: MTV