It was a delight for many as Davido appeared in Coming to America 2, many feel it is a plus for the Nigerian music industry and the entertainment industry in general.
Coming to America 2 was released March 5th, 2021 thirty years after the first one was produced. The movie featured artists like Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, Shari Headley, James Earl Jones, Arsenio Hall, Rotimi, Jermaine Fowler, and a host of others.
Davido’s appearance in the movie is an indication that the Nigerian music industry is beating international standards and enjoyed across borders. Davido is among the top Nigerian artists in the music industry with several albums.
Davido has been engaged to his girlfriend Chioma Rowland since 2019 however, it was rumored recently that they have broken up as he was seen holding hands with another woman during his last vacation. Although the rumor of his dissolved engagement went viral, Davido hasn’t come out to say anything about the status of his relationship.
Davido’s first single was released in 2011 after which he had “Dami Duro” that gained him more recognition, he made his way swiftly to become one of the most talked-about about in the industry. He has received several awards at the Headies and many others.
Davido culled his stage name from his official name David; David Adedeji Adeleke is a father of 3, he graduated from Babcock University in 2015 after dropping out from Oakwood University in the United States of America to pursue a career in music. Davido has done several collaborations with other foreign artists like Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Clean Bandits, Tinashe, and a couple of others.
Coming to America 2 has proven that Nigeria’s fashion and styles are recognized around the world. According to PulseTV, the Nigerian culture and style had some influence in the movie. The online TV believes that Nigeria is usually at the forefront of beautiful pop culture moments.
The movie featured some Nigerian music out of the many on the movie tracklist, Tiwa Savage’s Koroba, Tekno’s Waka waka, and Davido’s Assurance. This goes further to prove that Nigerian artistes have a stronghold in the global music industry.
The movie also featured some Nigerian artists both in cast and crew, artistes such as Rotimi Akinosho, Lola Adamson, US-based Nigerian child actress Ayorinde Kemit, and Davido all had roles to play in the movie. Olaolu Winfunke was also one of the producers of the romantic-comedy movie. Wesley Snipes also has some Nigerian heritage as former President Olusegun Obasanjo conferred him honourary citizenship some years ago when he came to Nigeria for a three-day working visit, Wesley Snipes is a citizen of Nigeria from Abuja the country’s capital.
The Nigerian native style and Ankara appeared comfortably in the movie, this is to say that the Nigerian style is appealing to many across the globe. Although ‘Agbada’ is not peculiar to Nigeria alone, it is, however, one of the major dressing styles in the country, and some guards in the movie appeared in some scenes wearing ‘Agbada’ while some of the ladies appeared with ‘Gele’ tied in the Nigerian style.
The movie did not just adopt the Nigerian style but also Nigerian names, in the scene where Lavelle was learning about his Zamundan heritage, he learned that ‘Tunde Joffer’ is one of his ancestors. ‘Tunde’ is a Nigerian name from the western part of the country and it means ‘Returns’.
Generally, Coming to America both 1&2 is an African themed romantic-comedy movie that featured Eddie Murphy(Prince Hakeem) as a young Prince that left his home country in search of true love regardless of his culture and heritage it later turned out 30 years later that his son followed his fathers’ footsteps.
The movie proves that African culture is admired across the globe. African culture is expressed in its arts and crafts, folklore and religion, clothing and cuisine, music and, languages. In the movie, the African culture was express majorly in its dressing style and way of life.
The movie was released days before Burna Boy and Wizkid won Grammy awards; Davido has since congratulated them saying their win is a victory for Nigeria and the people, this is regardless of the friction between Davido and Burna Boy.
Coming to America 2 will make you want to rewatch coming to America, the movie made $128,152,301 in the United States and ended up with a worldwide total of over $200million, it was the third highest-grossing movie at the United States box office in 1988, the sequel part had a budget of $60million it is no wonder it is a hit.
Author: Kangmwa Gofwen
Lagos Bureau Chief, Nigeria
gofwenjoy@gmail.com