Buga: From dancehall to World Cup?

The global rise and acceptance of Buga continues. Its non-stop reign at shows and parties talks about the meticulousness of the pop, afrobeat, rhythm and blues songwriter, Kizz Daniel. Vado D’Great, as he’s also known, has not failed to deliver to the delight of fans when needed and has not hidden his desire to sing […]

The global rise and acceptance of Buga continues. Its non-stop reign at shows and parties talks about the meticulousness of the pop, afrobeat, rhythm and blues songwriter, Kizz Daniel. Vado D’Great, as he’s also known, has not failed to deliver to the delight of fans when needed and has not hidden his desire to sing the song with a mass choir at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

He sang Buga alongside Tekno Miles and the song’s continued global acceptance lends credence to the place of African music globally, following the footsteps of some iconic Nigerian afrobeat musicians. Buga has not stopped blaring during shows and parties.

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Since the release of the hit song, produced by Reward Beatz and co-produced by Blaise Beatz, Young Willis and Micky Geetarist, social media has been awash with creative skits, jigs and twists to the rhythm. Buga didn’t just blow the music scene away with soft serenity, it also designed a dance step that spurs confidence in listeners into holding their heads up positively. The lyrics also endeared the song to the hearts of several people as some saw it as inspiration that hard work pays. 

Kizz Daniel alluded to the global reactions to the song, “Whatever you’re seeing out there, whatever results the song is generating, that’s the result of hard work and I’ve consistently put in my best in all my songs. Nothing good comes easy,” Daniel said in a recent interview with Daily Trust.

He said, “Buga in Nigerian parlance means “Show off”, “stunt on them”. So, in this context, it means after you’ve put in the work, let your results speak loudly. Enjoy your success.”

The wide acceptance of the song had facilitated a world tour by the artiste. Having started with some cities in Nigeria, he went to Zambia then four cities in England before storming ten cities in the United States of America (USA). He is billed to also tour other countries in Africa, Australia and Europe.

#Bugachallenge trailed the release of the single. To be part of the challenge, participants listen to the song and go down before gradually standing and raising their shoulders. As of Friday, #buga had 1, 931, 811 posts on Instagram and showed in 6, 634, 046 interactions on Facebook.

Though little Ozim Chionye Elvira won the one million naira #Bugachallenge prize money, some of the hundreds of people that participated were not eyeing the prize, including the Liberian president George Weah, who danced to the song at an event. Weah joined some leaders that danced to the song, including the Sierra Leonean First Lady, Fatima Maada Bio, and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State.

Among international stars

The successes of the song rub off on its official video which was released on Thursday. The official video released on YouTube had over 3, 575, 000 views in less than 42 hours, while the song had been featured in over 840 million posts on Tik Tok as it turns the delight of content creators. The song is still on the top 200 global popular songs of Shazam music and had risen to the number one spot in May. Before then, a few days after it was released, it was the number one song on Apple Music’s top 100: Nigeria chart.

The global acceptance must have prompted the desire of the talented artiste to sing ‘Buga’ at the 2022 World Cup. He tweeted, “God I want to perform BUGA for World Cup with a mass choir, help me say amen.” The tweet had over 10, 000 retweets.