Nigeria’s Fireboy DML releases Apple Music Home Session

The Apple Music Home Session project involves stripped-down, at-home performances that will see various artists reimagine signature songs and covers. Fireboy DML’s setlist features three tracks off his latest album Apollo. They include ‘Airplane Mode’, ‘Tattoo’ and ‘Champion’ – as well as a cover of Afropop singer Wande Coal’s ‘Again’.

“Recording the stripped-down home session was a humbling experience for me, because in some way it afforded me the chance to find my way back to that dreamy young man I was a couple of years back,” Fireboy DML said. “I wanted to show a bit of vulnerability while still maintaining raw emotion, and I think I managed to do just that.”

He said the tracks selected for the Apple Music Home Session were “the most powerful and compelling songs off the album” and exposed “different parts of me that I initially never showed my fans.”

“‘Airplane Mode’ talks about my reclusive nature and how I have managed to deal with fame, ‘Tattoo’ shows the sensual and intense side of me while ‘Champion’ is the inspirational song about a young man who won despite the odds against him. Nothing sums up my life better than these songs at the moment. And I decided to perform an acoustic cover of ‘Again’ by Wande Coal, because he is a man I consider to be my idol and this is a song I consider a modern classic.”

Born Adedamola Adefolahan, Fireboy DML is signed to YBNL Nation, a record label founded by Nigerian rapper Olamide. Fireboy DML burst onto the music scene with his commercially successful LP Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps (2019), which was followed by Apollo (2020). Both projects secured him four awards at the recently-held Headies. They included Best Pop Album, Best R&B Album, Headies Revelation and Best R&B Single. His 2019 single ‘Scatter’ was listed among the official tracks for EA Sports’ FIFA 21 video game.

Meanwhile, Fireboy last week partnered with fellow Afro-fusion artist Cheque on ‘History,’ a song “as much about looking to the future as it is to the past”, according to the artist.

Listen to Fireboy DML’s exclusive Apple Music Home Session here.