Darey is a veteran Nigerian award-winning musician, singer, songwriter, and Idol series judge. He is the son of the Nigerian legendary Jazz musician and entertainer, Art Alade. His genre of music is R&B songs is loved and played by millions of his fans across the globe.
Early Life And Background
Darey is the last of five children of Olapeju Art Alade, mother and wife of Art Alade, a famous Nigerian highlife/jazz artiste in the sixties and seventies. He hails from Lagos state, Nigeria.
Darey started his musical journey in 1998 when at the age of 15, he was performing at B Jez Nite Club on Victoria Island, Lagos State. It was there that a member of the Cool FM management noticed the talents in him and invited him to radio station, where he (Darey) proved himself to be good in interacting beautifully with his audience.
Darey was shuttling Cool FM and at the time attending the University of Lagos where he was studying for a degree in Music. This was the actual place where he had the bulk of experience and basic knowledge of radio production and marketing. Since then, he has been a successful disc jockey, TV presenter, entertainment consultant, voice over artist and performing/recording artist. He is also good at playing piano and drums.
His Career Background
Darey’s breakthrough came to limelight 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 and emerged third in the contest in front of over 100 million people.
Since then, the multiple award winning Darey has enjoyed the support, love and massive airplay both within Nigeria and beyond from millions of his fans through his album loaded with several hit singles, including ‘Fuji’ and ‘Escalade’.
Darey’s other hit album ‘Original Naija’ which was used as the theme Song for the first ever edition of Big Brother Nigeria.
‘From Me 2 U’, is another hit and this particular album 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.
2008, Darey spent several months as the host of a music based reality show ‘MTN Project Fame West Africa’, a place where his first hit came to limelight in South Africa edition in 2004.
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.
2013, Darey released a new single ‘Special fever’ produced by internationally acclaimed producer, Harmony and of recent appointed an ambassador to Unilever’s popular beverage product drink lipton.
2015 was another good year for Darey, having released a successful album – Naked. 10 of the 13 track songs were produced by Oscar Heman Ackah. The 13 track album were made up of Afro beat, soul and R&B which featured collaborations with Nigerian Rapper, Olamide and multiple Grammy award-winning Soweto Gospel Singer.
On request of the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Darey was invited to perform at the Presidential Villa in an exclusive dinner to mark the Country’s 50th independence Anniversary. Over 200 million viewers across the world witnessed the event which was streamed live with several African Presidents and past world leaders present.
Darey was the main host of both the Gulder Ultimate Search and Glo Naija. This show remains one of the biggest shows Nigeria has ever seen and presented by Darey.
He was seen holding photograph with the former President Bush of the United States now deceased. This development explains volumes about Darey as a music icon whose profile has really gone beyond the shores of this country.
As a philanthropist and humanitarian, Darey supports several charitable organizations including Cancer Charities, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and several foundations in Africa. Again, he has successfully hosted various shows across the country including ‘talent hunts’ for the youths, a platform he created to give back to the society. This he did by setting up the Art Foundation, whose main goal is to keep music education alive for the young talents in primary and secondary schools in Nigeria and indeed Africa.
Awards And Nominations
Darey has received a lot of prestigious awards and nominations to his name, with just few to mention below:
Best R&B Video 2009 Channel O Music Video Awards
Best R&B 2009 Nigerian Music Video Awards
Best Use Of Costume “More” 2009 Nigerian Music Video Awards
Video Of The Year “More” (2009 Nigerian Music Vide
o Awards)
Best Music Video Of The Year
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))
His Collections
Darey’s volume of work are just too numerous to mention here. Few of these include:
• From Me 2 U
• unDAREYted
• Double Dare
• Naked
Hit Singles
• Escalade
• Fuji
• With This Woman
• Carry Dey Go (featuring 2Face Idibia)
• Style Na Style Remix ft. 9ice, Password & Jesse Jagz
• Stroke Me
• The Way You Are
• Don’t Let Me Know
• Sisi Eko
• Asiko Laiye (Remix) ft Olamide
Nominated
• Best R&B (2009 MTV Music Video Awards)
• Best R&B Song “Escalade” (2007 Awards for Musical excellence in Nigeria (A.M.E.N))
• Best R&B Album “From Me 2 U” (Awards for Musical excellence in Nigeria (A.M.E.N))
• Best Single Recording “Not The Girl” (2009 Hip Hop World Awards)
• Best Vocal Performance – Male “Not The Girl” (2009 Hip Hop World Awards
• Best Afro Pop Video “Ba Ni Ki Di” (2011 Nigerian Music Video Awards
• Best RnB Video “The Way You Are” (2011 Nigerian Music Video Awards
• Video of the year “The Way You Are” (2011 Nigerian Music Video Awards)
• Best Use of Costumes “Ba Ni Ki Di” (2011 Nigerian Music Video Awards
• Best R&B Pop Album – Double Dare (2011 The Headies)
• Best Vocal Performance (2011 The Headies)
• Best Use of Costumes “Sisi Eko” (2012 Nigerian Music Video Awards)
• Best Highlife “Sisi Eko” (2012 Nigerian Music Video Awards)
• Best Male Artiste: Inspirational “Pray For Me” (2015 Africa Music Awards) and several others.
Personal Life
Dare Art Alade is married to Deola Ayeni Art-Alade and the marriage is blessed with two Children.
His Net Worth
Darey is a young multi-talented music icon in Nigeria with a net worth based on speculations to be over $3 million dollars.