"Awuke" is a song by Nigerian singer and record producer

Davido David Adedeji Adeleke (born November 21, 1992), known professionally as Davido, is a Nigerian American, Nigerian-American singer, songwriter and record producer. Davido was born in Atlanta, U.S, and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. He made his mus ...

and American singer

YG Marley Joshua Omaru "YG" Marley (born December 5, 2001) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the son of rapper and singer Lauryn Hill and former CFL football player Rohan Marley, and the grandson of reggae pioneer Bob Marley. He rose to promin ...

. It was released on 31 October 2024 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. The song was written by Davido and Moonlight AfriQA. The song reached the top ten on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Afrobeats Songs Afrobeats, not to be confused with Afrobeat or Afroswing, is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Ghana, Nigeria, and the UK in the 2000s and 2010s. Afrobeats is less of a sty ...

chart.

Background

After being featured on two songs, "

Joy Joy is the state of being that allows one to experience feelings of intense, long-lasting happiness and contentment of life. It is closely related to, and often evoked by, well-being, success, or good fortune. Happiness, pleasure, and gratitu ...

" by

Angélique Kidjo Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo (; born July 14, 1960) is a Beninese- French singer-songwriter, actress and activist noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Kidjo has won five Grammy A ...

, and " Right Now" by

Darkoo Oluwafisayo Isa (born 18 September 2001), known by her stage name Darkoo, is a British-Nigerian rapper and singer. She came to prominence following the release of her single "Gangsta", featuring One Acen, which peaked at number 22 on the Offici ...

featuring Jamaican record producer

Rvssian Tarik Johnston (born 12 April 1988), commonly known as Rvssian and previously as Russian (stylized in all caps), is a Jamaican record producer, singer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Head Concussion, a music production company situate ...

, Davido teased his new song. He first shared the snippet of the song on 1 October 2024, while celebrating Nigeria's Independence Day, and again during

Lauryn Hill Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American musician. She is celebrated as one of the most influential musical artists of her generation. Hill is credited with breaking barriers for female rappers, contributing to the popular music, m ...

's concert in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. On 22 October 2024, he announced on X and

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

that the song would be released on 31 October 2024.

Composition

The song blends

Afrobeats Afrobeats, not to be confused with Afrobeat or Afroswing, is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Ghana, Nigeria, and the UK in the 2000s and 2010s. Afrobeats is less of a st ...

and

Amapiano Amapiano is a genre of music from South Africa that became popular in mid-2012 with an earlier regular occurrence on South African radio stations in the early 2000s. It is a hybrid of kwaito, deep house, gqom, jazz, soul, and lounge music char ...

, featuring sweet

melodies A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term ca ...

, tunes, Amapiano whistle beats, and heavy drum bass

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

. It centers on admiration for a

love interest (; ) were stock characters within the theatre style known as commedia dell'arte, who appeared in 16th-century Italy. In the plays, everything revolved around the lovers in some regard. These dramatic and posh characters were present within pl ...

, with Davido and YG Marley singing about beauty, maturation, and perseverance.

Reception

Nosakhale Akhimien of ''

Premium Times ''Premium Times'' is a Nigerian online newspaper based in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. The newspaper was launched in 2011. The online medium is notable for investigative journalism and reports, among other fields. Recognition * Nominated ...

'' described the track as a vibrant love song and celebration of African identity. According to Akhimien, "Davido and YG Marley’s vocals create a smooth, balanced production. Davido’s delivery is confident and passionate, showcasing his signature vocal style that combines pop sensibility with Afrobeat’s rhythmic intensity. YG Marley’s addition brings a refreshing vibe."

Music video

The song was released alongside its music video, which was directed by Daps. The video ranked number 4 on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

's trending videos in Nigeria.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

. *

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

songwriting A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

– vocals * MOONLIGHT AFRIQA – songwriting * Mikababeatz –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

* Marvey Muzique – co-producer * Aidan Duncan –

mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

* Leandro Hildago – mixing engineer,

mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2024 songs 2024 singles Davido songs Columbia Records singles YG Marley songs Songs written by Davido Number-one singles in Nigeria