Davido Bets $1m, Says No Nigerian Artiste Has More Hits Than Him
By Emmanuel Daniji
Afrobeats superstar David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has thrown down the gauntlet to his fellow Nigerian artistes, declaring that no Nigerian musician has a bigger collection of hit songs than him.
The singer made the bold claim during a recent livestream with streamer Davrel, where he offered to stake $1 million on a hit-for-hit battle against any Nigerian artiste willing to challenge him.
“I will put $1 million cash on the table. Nobody has more hits than me,” Davido said.
The statement has already stirred conversations among music fans, particularly given Davido’s extensive catalogue spanning more than a decade.
Since breaking into the Nigerian music scene with his 2011 debut album Omo Baba Olowo, Davido has established himself as one of Africa’s most commercially successful artistes, delivering numerous songs that have become club, radio and street anthems.
His catalogue includes major hits such as Dami Duro, Fall, If, FIA, Assurance, Blow My Mind, Risky, Unavailable, Feel and several other fan favourites.
However, Davido is not alone in the conversation. Nigerian music has produced several hitmakers whose catalogues could make such a contest particularly difficult, including Wizkid, Olamide, Burna Boy, 2Baba, Runtown, Tekno and others.
The proposed $1 million hit battle also brings back memories of a similar debate during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, when Burna Boy challenged Nigerian artistes to a hit-for-hit contest.
Former Mavin Records star Reekado Banks accepted the challenge at the time, but Burna Boy rejected him, insisting that he was not a “worthy challenger.”
Unlike the 2020 challenge, however, Davido has now put a substantial financial stake behind his claim.
As of the time of filing this report, no Nigerian artiste has publicly accepted Davido’s $1 million challenge.
Whether the challenge will eventually produce a musical showdown remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the debate over who owns the strongest hit catalogue in Nigerian music has just received another major spark.
