New singles: Darey features Olamide, Soweto Gospel Choir

Darey Art Alade is back with two new singles off his forthcoming album titled, ‘Naked’. The songs, ‘Pray For Me’ (Gbàdúrà Fuń Mi), featuring multiple Grammy award winning Soweto Gospel Choir and ‘Àsìkò Laiyé’ featuring popular indigenous rapper Olamide premiered Tuesday, July 7 on major radio stations around Nigeria.

The award winning R&B singer and songwriter popularly known for major hits in the past including ‘Not The Girl’, ‘Ba Ni Kidi’, ‘Sisi Eko’, ‘The Way You Are’, ‘Escalade’ as well as his annual music concert ‘Love Like A Movie’, has reassured that he is not leaving the music scene anytime soon as he is set to release his fifth album after four years.

‘Pray For Me’ tells a powerful, positive story of victory against all odds with Darey channelling the spirit of his forefathers as a traditional folk storyteller against a rich backdrop of impressive harmonies from the world famous Soweto Gospel Choir. Translated to Gbàdúrà Fuń Mi in Yorùbá, the song is an inspiring musical experience that contrasts Darey’s signature voice range with the delightful vocals of the over 20-strong choral group.

‘Àsìkò Laiyé’, the second single is an up-tempo Afrobeat-Hip-Hop fusion featuring rapper Olamide. Drawing heavily on the Afrobeat sound of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the light-hearted yet inspirational number sees Darey incorporate the flow of an R&B song with the raw earthiness of Olamide’s “Street-Hop” flavour to deliver a danceable, yet truly conscious piece.

“I thought it would be good to give the fans a sample of the kind of diversity on this album. The idea was to prove that it is possible to make good music that is low-tempo, mid-tempo or a dancefloor filler and still have a message,” said Darey, who added that ‘Naked’ boasts of other exciting features and will be released this August.