- Adekunle Gold released his debut album ‘Gold’ in 2016
- The talented singer embarked on a remarkable artistic evolution over the past 8 years
- Adekunle Gold reflects on how his music journey started only as a dream
Adekunle Gold's musical journey is defined by his unwavering commitment to realizing his dream through exceptional music and sound. This is something that cannot be overlooked.
A consistent journey from recording his first song as a teenager to being part of a boys' band and his ballad and folk delivery in his debut ‘Gold.’ His evolution to become a pop superstar is inspiring.
Via his official X (formerly Twitter) page on July 25, the 37-year-old singer, currently signed to Def Jam Records, reflected on the 8 years existence of his debut ‘Gold’ —one that he was sure would change his life.
Adekunle Gold’s caption read:
All I had was a dream. I knew I had a special gift and I said to myself, “the world must hear this, they must know my name, these stories I have to share must mean something to people, these songs must find a home in people’s hearts” 8 years ago, my life changed forever! There is nothing better than Gold.
AG Baby, as he is also called, got into the limelight after releasing his hit song ‘Sade’ —a Highlife cover of One Direction’s ‘Story of My Life.’ The reception of the song rose to critical acclaim to get it nominated for Best Alternative Song at the 2015 Headies awards.
In 2016, he released his debut studio work, ‘Gold’ under the YBNL Nation, which debuted at number 7 on the Billboard World Album chart.
From his debut ‘Gold’ in 2016, to his fifth studio album ‘Tequila Ever After’ in 2023, Adekunle Gold is part of the artistes setting a ‘gold’ standard for music and branding. He has embarked on one of the most remarkable evolutions of an artiste in the Nigerian music scene.
Revisiting debut ‘Gold’ album
The 16-track album was released on July 28, 2016, by YBNL Nation, launching Adekunle Gold onto the music scene. Preceding the release of the album, songs like ‘Sade’ and ‘Orente’ were dropped the previous year and later became his breakthrough songs.
‘Gold’ album tracklist
With producers like Masterkraft, B Banks, Oscar, Pheelz, SeyiKeyz, and Sleekamo, Adekunle explored the Afropop, Fuji, Afro-soul, and folk music genres. Heavily inspired by legends like Ebenezer Obey and King Sunny Ade, he found his style and simplified it to stand out as unique.
The more interesting part is how all tracks except track 16 were mixed and mastered by Adekunle Gold’s wife, Simisola Kosoko, popularly known as Simi.
After its release in 2016, Online Magazine Filter Free described the ‘Gold’ album as ‘coming from a place of artistic excellence and deserves applause.
One of the notable milestones of the ‘Gold’ album was being nominated for Album of the Year at the Nigeria Entertainment Awards in 2017. It was also nominated for Album of the Year and R&B/Pop Album at the Headies in 2018.
‘African Giant’ anniversary: Notable milestones achieved by Burna Boy’s album after 5 years
Meanwhile, TheRadar previously reported that derived from Burna Boy’s infamous outburst and self-proclamation ‘African Giant’ his fourth studio album has marked five years since its release.
The phrase was reportedly first used by Burna Boy to express his displeasure towards Coachella’s organizers, who were said to have written his name in small letters. This contributed to the inspiration of his album title.
