From Wizkid and Tems summer hit collab with Justin Bieber, to ckay’s “love nwantiti”. This year has been full of surprises for afro beat and the Nigerian music industry.
Fireboy’s song, “Peru” is the latest addition to the international market. The afro-fusion artist featured Irish singer, Ed Sheeran on the song and it’s not what we expected. Ed Sheeran has never missed with a feature since his debut. However, this has to be the most surprising one yet.
When Fireboy announced the Ed Sheeran feature on Peru, many of us wracked our brains thinking how Ed Sheeran’s singing style and irish accent would flow in a yoruba song. However, Ed showed versatility and profound skill as he sang his verse.
The most impressive characteristics about Ed’s verse is how original it sounded. Unlike many international acts on an “African” track, Ed Sheeran did not lose his style but managed to make his verse sound good on the beat. There was no faux African accent, nor was there a caricature of “Africanness” in his verse.
Replacing Fireboy’s “wni wan wa mi” with “when you want to see me” was quite intelligent. When Fireboy announced the Ed collaboration, I expected to hear a white boy attempting to sing in Yoruba and failing. This wasn’t the case with this feature. Ed sounded just like himself, just with an afrobeat playing in the background.
To top it off, Ed’s softer vocals matched perfectly with Fireboy’s raw-spirited singing voice. Peru is undeniably one of the top vocal Nigerian songs this year, and Ed Sheeran hopping on it’s remix showed an opening for more vocal songs in the Nigerian music industry.
Peru remix showed exceptional skill and versatility from both Ed Sheeran and Fireboy. Hopefully, this opens more doors for international collaborations with Afro beat artistes.
