Davido says making 'Timeless' album was like a healing process

African music megastar has taken Nigerian music to global heights through his hit singles, superstar brand, and philanthropy which makes him one of the biggest artists in the world.

On March 31, 2023, Davido released his record-breaking fourth album 'Timeless' which reached record commercial heights and also enjoyed critical acclaim.

In a new interview with Apple Music's Zane Lowe, Davido shared insights into the creative process of the album that earned a 2024 Grammy nomination for Best Global Album.

According to the megastar, the album-making process was an intimate one that felt like a healing process for him after the difficult experience he endured in 2022. Davido shared that he recorded the album while living with his wife and some close family members.

"Me and the engineer. I actually recorded most of this album in my house where I live with my wife. So it was really only me, her and her sisters at the time, and then I had one of my boys staying with me. But it gave me time to really calm down and yeah, it was a healing process because I was happy that, oh, I'm waking up today. I'm making music today. You know what I'm saying? I'm excited."

In the interview, Davido also shared that he shortlisted 28 songs for the album before it was narrowed down to the 17 songs that finally made the album.

"I used to wake up, I remember, sometimes I'd be tired. So, what I used to do is that I'd play, because I was in the gym, the songs that I had made for the album. It was 28 songs after we'd kind of trickled it down, so I'd play the album from one to 28. So the whole time I'm gyming, I'm happy, it's new music, I'm already imagining. I'm already imagining how people going to react to it. I'm imagining, I was a little kid, and I've been doing this for 12 years and it felt like this is the first time I'm ever going to drop music. It's the first time I'm about to go back on the road. You know what I'm saying? And I wanted the music to be so good because I already knew, me coming back, a lot of people were really, really expecting the album. But I didn't want to just come out and be like, "Yeah, he's been through a lot. We're going to support him.”

Yeah. So, like I was saying, in the gym, I'd play it, play it, play it. And we finally picked the songs and everything just came together. Everything would just come together, even with the ideas." 

The interview is a precursor to Davido's landmark A.W.A.Y Festival in Atlanta Georgia on November 18, 2023.