Over the weekend, some clips of Davido went viral. And, this was before he took the stage at the O2. Less than 24 hours before he took the stage at the O2 for his second attempt at headlining the UK’s second-largest indoor venue, he popped up at a living room on the outskirts of London to surprise a fan celebrating their 30th birthday with a 30 BG themed games night. For that fan, Seun Olubunmi, it started as a joke and evolved into the aptest way to commemorate her 30th birthday- inspired by the things she loved.
I caught up with her last night to get the lowdown on how the theme came about, Davido’s appearance, her perspective of the show and fandom Afrobeat style.
Excerpts below;
How did you come up with the theme of the party? What mood were you looking for?
It started as a joke. In December, I was talking about turning 30 and obviously, I’m a big Davido fan so I was like #30BG. I was in Hastings with a couple of friends and said “Imagine if I had a 30BG party and everybody came dressed as somebody in Davido’s camp”. It literally was a joke. And then I forgot about it. A month later, I started to think about what I wanted to do again and I started to gravitate to the 30BG idea again. I asked myself: what else do I like? Games Night. So we added the spirit of that with a fashion parade. I just wanted bants, something that would be fun. It genuinely wasn’t something I thought about deeply. I really like themed parties and I think it’s very interesting to get people to dress up as something. I wanted it to be fun and I thought that would be a fun thing to do. There was so much to do with it. There are so many people affiliated to Davido and I wanted to see how people would interpret.
Had you clocked that the concert was that weekend?
No. I bought my ticket in November and forgot about it. But when I decided I wanted to do this theme, I was like “Oh! We’ll go to the concert the day after” and it’ll be like our 30BG weekend kinda thing.
What’s it about Davido that makes him your favourite?
I just like that he’s himself. I feel like he’s always been himself in terms of his evolution over the last 10 years that he’s been in the industry. He has been consistent not just in terms of the music he’s producing but who he is. He’s always been the guy with the big squad around him and you can tell that people are loyal to him because he takes care of them. I like that he’s stayed true to himself and regardless of how successful he’s gotten, he hasn’t necessarily changed.
What were the standout looks from your guests?
I had a grading system from which I picked my top five. My top five looks were Tobi and Hannah who were Davido and Chioma, then Tosin and Peter who recreated a picture of Davido and Chioma in Dubai, Shola recreated a look from Sweet in the Middle, Sunmisade recreated the all-black look with the gun from Jowo and, Tosan was Davido working out for the O2.
Honourable mention to Laju who recreated the look and the manoeuvres from the La La video and Oyinkan who did the look from Gobe. As soon as they walked in Asa knew exactly who she was. He was like “That’s Gobe”. I can’t even lie, so many people did a great job of recreating things. Looking at it, it was a lot of effort and even for people who had simple outfits- they still nailed it.
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At what point, did you realise Davido was coming? How did it come about and how did it feel to see him in person?
I had no clue. After it happened, so many people were like “This person told me Davido was coming”. So, a lot of people knew. I could see Oyinade going in and out of the living room and stuff. But there was so much happening so I was distracted. I didn’t think anything of it. She had told me earlier that she wasn’t feeling well and went to my room to lie down which apparently was a lie. So some of my friends had reached out to Asa and they put everything together. We were in the middle of playing a game and I was concentrating on what I needed to memorise. There was just a lot of activity- the music suddenly got louder, people were a little bit restless and I just saw random people walk into the house. I was so confused ‘cos everybody had their phone out and they were recording. Then I saw him. I was laughing so much when I saw him. Like two weeks ago, I was talking to my friend and joked that “Imagine if Davido shows up at my house.” It wasn’t even the kind of joke that “I hope it happens”, it was just a joke. I was genuinely shocked.
How long was he there for?
Like 30 minutes. He came in, wished me a happy birthday and we explained to him what was happening. He was looking at everybody’s outfit trying to guess what it was, grabbed a drink and then someone- I don’t remember who it was but it was a great idea suggested we redo the fashion parade for him.
How did it feel realising the next day that the whole thing had gone viral?
When I woke up, it felt very normal. We had put all the furniture back so it felt like my life had gone back to normal. I went to watch videos on my phone and thought “Wow! This actually happened.” I got so many random messages from strangers who were like “Your party looked lit. Happy Birthday”. People now started forwarding me stuff from Twitter. I still can’t believe it.
Going from having him in your living room on one day to the O2 stage the next day, what did you make of the experience? What song were you most excited to see him perform?
High. I love Adekunle Gold so I was really hoping to see him make an appearance. I had a great time. I liked that he was able to essentially distil his evolution from the beginning to now. I like that he had a lot of people come out. I like that he was having a good time. You could tell and I feel like that was important particularly as he had been training so hard for it. I had a good time! I thought the effects were good. I thought DSF was good as an opener.
There’s a general perception that Davido is very generous, particularly to his collective and fans- how does it feel to be on the receiving end of this?
What I said to someone is that he’s exactly what I thought he’d be like in person. Very chill. He walked into the kitchen to go and make himself a drink. He was chill and normal. Obviously, he’s a celeb but he sat down on the arm of my sofa. It wasn’t like he was trying to sit on a throne. He was just trying to hang out and see what was happening and have a good time.