Fireboy DML thinks he will “definitely” be a part of music history.
The 26-year-old R B singer – whose real name is Adedamola Adefolahan – teamed up with pop superstar Ed Sheeran on smash hit ‘Peru’ and admitted he was “ready” for the sudden fame the collaboration would bring and is proud of the Afrobeats song because it has “pushed” the genre to “where it “deserves to be.”
He said: “I was ready for all the fame as soon as ‘Peru’ came out. When something you created in the confines of a room is getting so much love and attention, and the fact it represents the growth of Afrobeats, that all just means a lot to me. That’s where all the energy of mine is going: pushing Afrobeats to that level where it deserves to be. In years to come when they mention [the] names of people responsible for taking Afrobeats [to] where it is now, my name will definitely be a part of history, and that alone is enough. I feel like I deserve that, and I’ve put in a lot of work.”
However, the ‘Jealous’ hitmaker – who released his debut album ‘Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps’ back in 2019 and followed it up with ‘Apollo’ in 2020 – is set to release third album ‘Playboy’ in August – added that while he always hoped to have the success brought on by the Ed Sheeran collaboration, he “did not see it coming”
He told NME: “Honestly, I never saw it coming. I’ve always wanted a song like this: I’ve always prayed for a smash, an international smash, ever since Afrobeats went really big and global. I’ve always wanted this [success], but I didn’t see it coming this early. I knew I had a very big song in ‘Peru’, and I knew they were going to love it in Africa, especially Nigeria. It has a catchy hook and stuff like that, but I didn’t see this going as big [as it has]!”