“So, ‘No Wahala’ doing so well on TikTok wasn’t me it was people. Before the challenge, Daranijo did not know about 1da Banton, but now she knows him and believes he will get his due now that a lot of people know his song.ġda Banton recalled that at the time his song was blowing up in France, he wasn’t a regular user of Tik Tok and was still finding his way around the app. I was really excited, and I’m glad I joined the challenge,” said Daranijo who joined the app about seven months ago. “I jumped on the challenge, and boom it went viral. I didn’t expect it,” said Yewande Daranijo, an aspiring actress whose first viral TikTok video has over 300,000 views through this challenge. “My TikTok video on the ‘No Wahala’ challenge gave me my highest views and engagement on TikTok. Some of the funniest videos under the challenge feature videos of Nigerian social media influencers, James Brown and Idris Okuneye (popularly known as Bobrisky), dancing, kicking a football, or in the gym. The song is featured in videos of afro-dances reactions or replies to challenges or questions, sometimes from a loved one or crush. “No wahala” means no stress in Nigerian pidgin, a language widely spoken in Port Harcourt. Since his debut, he has released one EP and collaborated with Ghanaian Afro Dancehall superstar, Stonebwoy. So, I’m glad we achieved that.”īorn and raised in Port-Harcourt, 1da Banton, dropped his debut single in 2015. I just wanted to make music people could relate to that no matter the situation or circumstance, you just have to live your life.
When my producer, Blaise Beats, played the beat for me, the only thing that came to my head was to write a song that talks about a stress-free life, not a love or party song. “When I recorded ‘No Wahala’, that was how I was feeling, so I put it into music. Speaking on the inspiration for the song, on a video call with TechCabal, from his Lagos apartment, 1da Banton said he set out to create a stress-free vibe and connect with people who just wanted to live their lives without worrying. The song is also charting in over 10 countries, including the UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Uganda, and Kenya. Since the challenge began, “No wahala” has been used as a soundtrack in more than 190,000 videos and was at some point the second most Shazamed song in the world. The Afro dancehall artiste’s song was being used in a TikTok challenge that would take his music straight to the ears of millions of fans around the world. Because he doesn’t understand French, he Google-translated the captions, then smiled at himself. A few months ago, Nigerian artiste, 1da Banton, logged into his TikTok account, which he rarely used, only to discover that one of his songs, “No wahala”, from his Original Machine Vibe album, was being used in videos captioned in French.