When the beautiful Yemi Alade released her Afropop tune Johnny in 2014, little did she know that it was going to be a massive hit song.
The Selebobo produced song as at 7.05pm on Thursday has amassed 72m views on YouTube. The video is said to be the most watched by an African woman. Amazingly, it also has a french version recreated by Yemi Alade.
Unknown to many of her fans, Johnny was inspired by a personal experience. She once shared the Inspiration behind the hit song in an interview.
According to her:”The inspiration came from an OAP in Abuja who suggested carelessly that I sing a love song for once with someone’s name and I said ok, I would give thought to it and it worked out.
“Everybody has a Johnny in their life at a point in time or must have experienced a similar situation. But the thing is that even though I mentioned only three names in the song, in my own case, it’s a book full of names. I am grateful that I released a ‘heartbreak’ song that at the end of the day people are dancing to and are happy when they listen to it instead of crying and feeling bad. It’s like a message to everyone out there. It doesn’t have to be a relationship.
“It could be a business venture you have been trying to get for so long, but didn’t work out, you have to just get out of that position and keep moving forward. If you don’t move forward, you would continue to stay down. I get calls a lot from people about what the song does to them when they are upset and also when they watch the video. Thank God, I did the song”