Singer Darey Art Alade Full Biography,Life And News
|FULL NAME: Dare Art Alade
DATE OF BIRTH:
OCCUPATION: Singer-songwriter
MARITAL STATUS: Married
INTRODUCTION
Darey – is a Nigerian multi-platinum selling and award-winning musician, singer-songwriter, and Idol series judge. He is the son of the renowned Nigerian entertainer, Art Alade. He is quite loved by his fans for his awseome R&B Songs.
EARLY LIFE AND BACKGROUND
Dare Art Alade is the last of the five children of Olapeju Art Alade, wife to Art Alade a famous Nigerian highlife / jazz artiste in the sixties and seventies. His older siblings are Abimbola, Taiwo, Kehinde and Bolaji and he hails from Lagos state, the former capital of Nigeria.
Dare’s road to stardom started in 1998 when as a teenager, he was performing at B Jez Nite Club on Victoria Island, Lagos State. It was there that a member of the Cool FM management spotted the talent in him and invited him to radio station, where he (Dare) groomed him in all aspects of radio production and marketing.
Dare
honed his skills at an early age, singing with several choirs, including
the National Troupe of Nigeria Choir and then the Cathedral Choir. From
the age 15, he began performing extensively in clubs around Lagos,
Ibadan and other cities in Nigeria. It was during one of those late
night sessions he met an executive at Cool FM, a major Radio station,
who appreciated his voice, and his ability to interact with his
audience. The determined teenager began shuttling between Cool FM and
the University of Lagos where he was studying for a degree in Music.
During his time at Cool FM, he had the opportunity to acquire the basic
knowledge of radio production and marketing. Darey has over almost the past decade been a disc jockey, TV presenter, entertainment consultant, voice over artist and performing/recording artist.
Dare grew in Lagos, where he resided with his mum, and shuttled between the CoolFM radio station and University of Lagos where he was a student in the Department of Creative Art.
Apart from playing music on piano and drums, Dare also loves riding all kinds of motorbikes and keeping dogs.
Dare worked fulltime as a DJ, VJ, events compere, band member and voice-over artiste. Quite a wide portfolio for this talented Nigerian who creativity and bubbly personality pervades everything he does.
He was a DJ for 96.9 CoolFM, a Lagos-based radio station where he hosted various shows.
Dare was a member of an Acapella group called ChordWebs they sang in churches as a group and individually.
CAREER AND LIFE
Darey’s big break finally came during the 2004 edition of Project Fame
Academy, a well renowned Reality TV show and continent-wide talent hunt,
where he had the opportunity to perform in front of over 100 million
people, and emerged third in the contest.
After an unfruitful
record deal with Sony BMG Africa, his debut album ‘From Me 2 U’ hit the
Nigerian market two years later on Storm Records. The album was laced
with several hit singles, including ‘Fuji’ and ‘Escalade’ which enjoyed
massive airplay in the Nigerian and international media. The top selling
album also included the song, ‘Original Naija’ which was used as the theme Song
for the first ever edition of Big Brother Nigeria. Darey’s album, ‘From
Me 2 U’ won several awards including the Awards for Musical excellence
in Nigeria (A.M.E.N) and the 2006 Channel O Music Video Awards for best R&B Video in Africa.
In
2008, Darey spent several months as the host of a music based reality
show ‘MTN Project Fame West Africa’ from where he first hit continental
fame in the South Africa edition in 2004.
Two years after the release of his successful debut album, Darey released his highly anticipated follow
up entitled ‘unDAREYted’, on the new start up label, Soul Muzik. The
album sold over 150,000 copies across Nigeria in just two months. The
album features appearances by Darey’s contemporaries and friends:
Cobhams Asuquo (Asa’s producer), 2face Idibia, Naeto C, 9ice, Tee-Y Mix
and the up and coming R&B crooner, Pheel, to mention a few. The
critically acclaimed work features the smash hit ballad “Not The Girl,”
which has been nominated for several awards and won video of the year at
the 2009 Nigerian Entertainment Awards held in Washington DC.
In 2010, Darey performed at high profile shows in many cities across
the World including Nairobi, Johannesburg, Abuja, Lagos and other major
African cities, including a special concert with R&B legend R. Kelly
in South Africa and the This Day Peace Concert Tour in the Niger Delta
region of Nigeria, which had 50 Cent and Ciara as headliners. On request
of the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, he was invited to
perform at the presidential villa in an exclusive dinner to commemorate
the Country’s 50th independence Anniversary. At the event, which was
broadcast live to over 200 million viewers across the world, he
performed a medley of 50 songs with his 15-piece band, “Soul band” to a
room filled with several African presidents and past world leaders.
Darey was the main host of both the Gulder Ultimate Search and Glo
Naija Sings reality shows in 2011 and in February 2013, put together
alongside his Soul Muzik team one of the biggest shows Nigeria has ever seen, Darey Presents: Love Like A Movie in February 2013 which had the red carpet hosted by Kim Kardashian as well as the highly successful release of the music video, “Asiko” featuring Jozi and Ice Prince.
In May 2013 Darey released a new single, Special Fever, produced by
internationally acclaimed producer Harmony. In June 2013, hosted
the launch of media mogul Mo Abudu’s multi-broadcast network Ebony Life
TV alongside Dolapo Oni and most recently signed on as an ambassador to
Unilever’s popular beverage drink – Lipton.
Darey is currently a judge on Nigerian Idol, replacing Jeffrey Daniel.
As a philanthropist and humanitarian, Darey supports several causes
close to his heart including Cancer charities, Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) and several foundations in Africa. He also set up the Art
Foundation, whose main goal is to keep music education alive for kids in
primary and secondary schools in Africa.
Apart from his accomplishments as a recording artist, music producer,
TV/Radio personality and Master of ceremonies, Darey is also an
accomplished businessman and philanthropist with backbone support from Soul Muzik
his event and TV production company, Soul band and a state of the art
production facility, Soul Muzik Studios, where he does all his
production and recording.
AWARDS AND ENDORSEMENTS
Has a lot of big awards to his name, a few below
* Best Male Video “Not The Girl” (2009 Channel O Music Video Awards)
* Best R&B Video “Not The Girl” (2009 Channel O Music Video Awards)
* Best R&B “Not The Girl” (2009 Nigerian Music Video Awards)
* Best Use Of Costume “More” (2009 Nigerian Music Video Awards)
* Video Of The Year “More” (2009 Nigerian Music Video Awards)
* Best Music Video Of The Year “Not The Girl” (2009 Nigeria Entertainment Awards)
* Best R&B Video “Escalade” (2006 Channel O Music Video Awards)
* Best Picture / Musical Video “Escalade” (Awards for Musical excellence in Nigeria (A.M.E.N))
RUMORS AND CONTORVRSIES
None…
Darey And President Bush |
Darey And Wife |
Darey And Kim Kardashian in 2013 |
SOURCES: wikipedia.org,artofdare.tripod.com