Skelewu

"Skelewu" is a song by Nigerian singer Davido. It was released as the third single from his upcoming album. The song was produced by Shizzi, HKN Music's in-house producer. It peaked at number 1 on Afribiz's Top 100 chart. The song was ranked 5th on ''Premium Times'' list of the Top 10 songs of 2013. It gained popularity in Nigeria after Davido announced the Skelewu dance competition. The song was endorsed by African footballers Emmanuel Adebayor and Samuel Eto'o.

Instructional video/dance competition

To promote the song, Davido uploaded an instructional dance video of "Skelewu" onto YouTube on 18 August 2013. The video was directed by Jassy Generation. The release of the instructional video accompany the announcement of the Skelewu dance competitionIn. In order to win the competition, participants were told to watch the instructional dance video and upload videos of themselves dancing to the song. According to ''Pulse'', the number of dance videos uploaded to YouTube by fans aggregated to over 100,000 views. On 10 October 2013, Davido declared Bello Moshood Abiola the winner of the competition, tweeting: "Congrats my lil bro kiddy!! Won the 3k dollars skelewu competition .. I’m gonna change this kids life!! More things to come kiddy!!" Abiola received a sum of $3,000 from Davido.

Music videos

Releases

There were two music videos released after Davido released the instructional dance video of Skelewu. The first music video, directed by Sesan, was released on 15 October 2013. It was uploaded onto YouTube under "DAVID-O HKNMUSIC", a parody account. Shortly after the release of the music video, fans of Davido took to Twitter to belittle the video. They claimed that it wasn't up to par. Davido told fans to disregard the unauthorized release of the video. Moreover, he told fans that the official music video for "Skelewu" would be shot and directed by Moe Musa. Sesan broke his silence in a statement released by his team. He said: "My attention is drawn toward the chaos surrounding the release of the Skelewu video. I and my team shot the video for Davido in Nigeria and to the best of my knowledge, my client and his team were very happy with the result, when they watched and approved the video. If he has since had a change of heart, that is okay. I am not in any way responsible for the release of the video. I believe Davido and myself did a very good job regarding the video production and as a professional of over 10 years. I find it very irresponsible and immature if my client and his management publicly put out false statements and comments, in an attempt to tarnish my name, credibility and reputation. I remain dedicated, humble, focused and as hard working as ever." On 21 October 2013, Davido and HKN Music released the official music video for the song. After the release of the video, Davido received numerous criticism from people who felt that the video resembles the music video to LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem". According to ''Vanguard'', the number of people who disliked the official music video almost equate those who disliked the alternative video. Moe Musa, reacting to fans' condemnation of the official video, said: "Love it or hate it, it’s your issue not mine… All you haters out there are full of s**t, lol." There were reports that Davido wasn't pleased with Moe Musa's video and as a result, he was looking forward to shooting another music video with Clarence Peters.

Critical reception

The music videos for "Skelewu" were met with mixed reviews. ''Olori Supergal'' said: "A good music video is like great sex, after a marriage to a beautiful woman. What I can deduct is that Sesan’s work is in progress. It was the piecing of random dance clips; wrong dance clips, coloured and graded and given to us, thirsty fans of ‘Skelewu’ to savour. Hungry for something, we have eaten and we are afraid to say it doesn’t taste as expected."

A writer for ''Afrobeat360'' applauded Moe Musa for the video, saying: "I must credit Mr. Moe Musa for this compelling and masterfully directed video, which holds a ‘28 days Later the movie and Party Rockers Anthem Theme’ the inspired theme to it. The setting, location, narrative and choreography has been cunningly put together to achieve stunning cinematography. I very much visualize myself reviewing this video again in about five years time and dubbing it as one of Afrobeats most classic videos."

Accolades

"Skelewu" was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2014 MTV Africa Music Awards. The music video for "Skelewu" was nominated for Best Music Video of the Year at the 2014 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. Skelewu was nominated in the Song of the Year and Best Dance in a Video categories at the 2014 African Muzik Magazine Awards. The music video for "Skelewu" was also nominated for Most Gifted Dance at the 2014 Channel O Music Video Awards.

Live performances

On 3 November 2013, Davido performed "Skelewu" at the "Guinness Colourful World of More" concert alongside numerous artists, including P-Square, D'banj, Wizkid, Ice Prince, Burna Boy, Olamide, Phyno, Chidinma, Waje and Tiwa Savage. The concert occurred at the Eko Convention Centre of the Eko Hotel and Suites in Victoria Island, Lagos. On 17 December 2013, Davido performed "Skelewu" alongside Burna Boy at the 2013 edition of the Rivers State cultural and tourism carnival, Carniriv; the concert was held in Port Harcourt at the Liberation Stadium. On 30 December 2013, Davido performed the song in front of 16,000 people who attended Calabar Rocks, a concert sponsored by the Calabar Carnival Commission.

Track listing and remixes

In April 2014, Major Lazer and Wiwek released an electronic remix of "Skelewu". The music video for the remix compiles various "Skelewu" dance clips from around the world.

, title8 = Skelewu (Major Lazer)
, note8 = by Major Lazer and Wiwek
, writer8 = David Adeleke
, length8 = 2:22

Release history

References

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links

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{{Davido

2013 singles
2013 songs
Davido songs
Song recordings produced by Shizzi
Songs written by Davido