DAVIDO Vs WIZKID:Who wins the supremacy contest?

The Nigerian music scene has seen its share of rivalry, down the ages, till now. From Barrister Vs Kollington; Obesere Vs KWAM 1; Onyeka Onwenu Vs Christy Essien Igbokwe; Sunny Okosun Vs Fela Anikulapo-Kuti; and now, Nigeria’s two leading pop stars; Davido and Wizkid having been going at each other’s throats in the past days, jousting for supremacy.

In this special edition Hakdown takes a look at their careers and achievements and leaves you with the decision as to who’s greater and the better artiste. Pounds for pounds, this appears to be a fair fight as the two artistes do almost the same genre of music with slight variation as situations demand.

Backgrounds

Wizkid and Davido
Davido, born David Adeleke, 24, is a son of a billionaire who grew up in the US, before coming home to Nigeria to pursue his music career. Wizkid, 26, on the other hand is a local boy, born in Surulere, Lagos, to a lower middle class family but attained prominence with music after slugging it out through the thick and thin of the Nigerian music industry.

Davido got his breaks first time with the release of his debut album ‘Omo Baba Olowo’ in 2012. Songs like “All of You”, “Overseas”, “Ekuro”, “Gbon Gbon”,”Feel Alright” and Dami Duro became party anthems. Between 2013 and 2015, Davido released the singles; “Gobe”,”One of a Kind”, Skelewu, “Aye,” “If” and many others.

For Wizkid, life began musically in 2010 with the release of his debut album ‘Superstar’, which featured top hits like ‘Holla at your Boy’,  “Love My Baby”, “Pakurumo” and “Oluwa Lo Ni” and many others. His second studio album, “Ayo” was released in September 2014 and was preceded by six singles: “Jaiye Jaiye” “On Top Your Matter”, “One Question”, “Joy”, “Bombay”, “Show You the Money”and followed by “Ojuelegba”.

Awards

Currently, Wizkid holds the bragging rights over Davido for winning the 2017 BET award for Best International Act, African category in which the two of them were nominated. However, by and large, it’s a close match between the duo.

In most cases in which both of them were nominated, Davido seems to have the upper hand. Davido has triumphed seven times at the expense of Wizkid, while the Ojuelegba crooner has beaten the Aye man only twice. But all in all, counting non head-to-head situations, Wizkid’s shelf boasts of more awards than Davido.

Social media popularity

Both of them are very active on the social media. And yet again it’s a close call between them.

Instagram followers as at July 6, 2017: Davido- 4,406M ; Wizkid – 3,803M

Twitter followers as at July 6, 2017: Davido – 2.4M  ; Wizkid – 2.8M

YouTube war of popular videos

It is very hard to obtain views of all their songs on YouTube. For this reason, we have selected all three of their most popular songs.

Songs off their debut album selected for this exercise are Dami Duro from Davido and Pakurumo from Wizkid: Davido’s Dami Duro – 7.5M views ; Wizkid’s Pakurumo 5.2M views

Davido’s Aye – 40.M views  ; Wizkid’s Ojuelegba – 269,000  views

And recently:

Davido’s If – 25.7M views ; Wizkid’s  27.7M views.

Past and present endorsements

Davido has enjoyed major endorsements from only three firms, namely; Pepsi, MTN and Guinness while Wizkid has six majors in this regard, namely; Pepsi, MTN, GLO, Guinness, Hennessy and Frost of London.

International collaborations

Wizkid seems to be the master in this regard. In our record, Wizkid has ten international collaborations while Davido boasts only of four.

Wizkid’s collaborations include: Come Close ft Drake; Sundown ft Zara Larsson; Wine to the Top ft Vijbz; Like This ft DJ Henry; Shabba ft Chris Brown, Trey Songz and French Montana; Mamacita ft Tinnie Tempah; Ojuelegba remix ft Drake; One Dance ft Drake; Soweto Baby ft DJ Maphorisa, DJ Buck; and African Bad Gyal ft Chris Brown. It should be noted that it doesn’t matter who features who, just as long as it is a collaboration.

Davido’s collaboration includes: Fans Mi ft Meek Mill; Fine Girl ft Wale and Olamide; Tichelet ft Mafikizolo; and The Sound ft Uhuru and DJ Buckz.

Label artistes

Davido’s label, Davido Music Worldwide has the likes of Mayorkun, Dremo, Lola Rae, Dammy Krane, Ichaba, Shina Rambo and B-Red under its belt. Curiously, none of these artistes has hit the superstar status. Mayorkun, Lola Rae and Dammy Krane may have some claim to fame but not many music pundits would stick their necks out on it.

Wizkid’s Star Boy Records has Mr Eazi, Efya, R2bees, Maleek and DJ Tunes. Mr Eazi is a standout here, and he’s even regarded as the darling boy of the moment. He won the coveted Next Rated Award at the last Headies Award and he has since been making waves.

The verdict

Based on the facts presented it is left to you to pick your better artiste. For Hakdown, it is just too close to call. Both of them are darn good, and remain, arguably, Nigeria’s best music exports.