ZRO Special: Top 10 songs of 2014

(Great songs were recorded, new dance steps
and artistes emerged, and Nigerian artistes got
a lot more international recognition. Photo:
NET)
The Nigerian music industry has witnessed a
very remarkable calendar year. Great songs
were recorded, new dance steps and artistes
emerged, and Nigerian artistes got a lot more
international recognition as they headlined
sold-out concerts all over Europe and with
several of them going on very successful tours.
In the midst of all these, the centre that holds
everything together is the quality of music they
produce, it’s acceptance on the street and the
number of awards and nominations these songs
gathered in the calendar year.
Truth be told, several hit songs dropped this
year, and some of them were simply
outstanding based on the following reasons.
The following songs, in no particular order,
became street anthems in a very short while,
these songs rocked the clubs and these artistes
headlined all the major concerts in the country
and beyond because of the hits. In total, these
artistes have over 150 awards and nominations
between them for these songs.
We call them the life of 2014…the reasons why
we always looked forward to hanging out and
rocking in the clubs every weekend all through
the year.
Here are the top 10 songs of 2014 (in no
particular order)…
‘Aye’ by Davido
This song was released on February 1, 2014 as
an innocent love song to celebrate St.
Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t originally intended
to be a club banger, but in just a couple of days
after it dropped, the gospel of the ‘Aye’ song
spread like wild fire. When the video, shot and
directed by Clarence Peters was released, on
February 7, those who didn’t believe in the
song at first were immediately converted.
And today, Davido has won several awards with
the song, which puts it firmly on this list.
‘Girlie O’ by Patoranking
On February 4, 2014, dance-hall act,
Patoranking released ‘Girlie O’ as a follow up
song to his break out single, ‘Alubarika’. Like
Davido’s ‘Aye’, ‘Girlie O’ was also a love song
for the Valentine season and in a very short
while, the song became a hit so much so that
multiple awards winning pop diva, Tiwa
Savage expressed her desire to be part of the
remix. And on May 19, 2014, her wish was
granted when the now even bigger ‘Girlie O’
remix dropped.
‘Alobam’ by Phyno
Alobam is one of the songs off Phyno’ s debut
album, No guts No glory released in March
2014.
In spite of the language barrier for most who
are not from the Southeast part of the country,
Phyno delivered a sweet blend of rap melodies
on the song and it’s no doubt one of the biggest
songs of 2014.
‘Alobam’ is now one of the street words
commonly used and its T-shirt merchandise
helped the song’s growth.
‘Story for the gods’ by Olamide
YBNL boss, Olamide released ‘Story for the
gods’ as a random single on June 20, 2014 and
few days after the song dropped, it became an
instant hit. According to reports, just a few
weeks after the single dropped, he started
getting calls from Alaba marketers to make an
album. This gave birth to his fourth studio
album titled Street OT on November 14, 2014.
‘Shake body’ by Skales
Skales began his career as an independent
artiste with the release of ‘Shake Body’ on May
6, 2014. He had just parted ways with E.M.E
Records and not much was expected from him.
He, however, proved critics wrong and went
far beyond the expectations of even those who
believed in him all along with this song. Shake
body turned out to be a huge hit and dance
floor favourite.
‘Show You The Money’ by Wizkid
Starboy boss, Wizkid released ‘Show you the
money’ to celebrate his 24 birthday on July
16, 2014.
The song dropped with a Patrick Ellis - directed
video and the rest is history. ‘Show you the
money’ is no doubt one of the biggest songs of
2014.
The song has also has a remix with American
rapper, Tyga .
‘Baby Hello’ by Wande Coal
Black Diamond boss, Wande Coal comes
through with this lovely tune, ‘Baby Hello’
produced by Maleek Berry .
The song was released on April 5, 2014 and its
melodious tune, chorus and Wande Coal’s
smooth delivery made it an instant hit. This
song is unarguably one of the most intelligent
commercial songs of this decade. A classy video
for the song directed by Sesan Ogunro was
followed on August 19, 2014.
‘Dorobucci’ by Don Jazzy-led Mavin Crew
The song, ‘Dorobucci’ dropped on May 1, 2014
at a period when over 200 girls had just been
kidnapped from Chibok.
Pundits lashed out at Don Jazzy for being
insensitive and dropping a song at such a time,
little did we know that ‘Dorobucci’ would be a
consolation of sorts to make Nigerians happy in
the moment of tribulation.
The song grew in leaps and bounds despite all
the criticism aimed at it. So big was the song
and its influence that virtually every hip-savvy
person added ‘Doro’ as a prefix to their names
and everything they did at the time and after.
‘Dorobuicci’ further cemented the music
production prowess of Don Jazzy as he
effortlessly blended 7 different artistes on a
song that has no chorus really.
‘Gallardo’ by Runtown ft Davido
Produced by T-Spice , the same producer
responsible for Davido’s ‘Aye,’ ‘Gallardo’ is
widely regarded as one of the songs that set the
pace of what to expect in the year 2014.
The song was released on January 29, 2014 and
it became an instant street anthem and club
banger, officially catapulting Runtown to
limelight and his career has clearly benefitted
so much from the effort.
‘Shoki’ by Lil Kesh, Orezi and Dre San:
If there’s a song that has crossed borders this
year, then it has to be ‘Shoki’. This song comes
with a dance step and it’s arguably the biggest
dance step in Africa as a whole at the moment.
Lil Kesh and Orezi dropped their versions of
the song on March 27, 2014 while Dre San ’s
version was released a little earlier. The rest
they say is history. It’s difficult to say which
version of ‘Shoki’ is the best though but this
list won’t be complete in any way without
mentioning ‘Shoki’ either as a song or in
reference to the dance form.
Just in case you’re wondering why some of the
favourite songs you rocked in 2014 didn’t make
this list, well, they were probably not released
in the year 2014. Songs like ‘Johnny’,
‘Surulere’, ‘Double Wahala’, ‘Caro’,
‘Emergency’ and others are all songs of 2013
but which grew on everyone in 2014.
‘Double Wahala’ by Oritsefemi, was released on
September 12, 2013, ‘Pull Over’ by Kcee and
Wizkid was released on October 30, 2013,
‘Surulere’ by Dr Sid and Don Jazzy dropped on
November 12, 2014, Ruggedman ’s ‘8 Figures’
was released on October 10, 2013, Wizkid’s
‘Caro’ was released on August 20, 2013 while
Yemi Alade ’s ‘Johnny’ was released on October
21, 2013.