Artist: Phyno
Featured Artist: Olamide
Song: Fada Fada (Ghetto Gospel)
Album: The Playmaker
Producer: Masterkraft
Duration: 4:45
Label: Penthauze
Ask anybody who was in a Nigerian bus, bar or wedding party in 2016 and they will tell you about “Fada Fada”. Phyno from the East and Olamide from the West joined hands, and the song was everywhere.
It was the third single from Phyno’s second album, The Playmaker. The song topped PlayData’s radio chart in June 2016 and held the number one spot for ten straight weeks.
The awards followed. “Fada Fada” won Song of the Year at The Headies 2016, and in 2025 Billboard placed it at number 20 on its list of the 50 best Afrobeats songs of all time.
Relive it with the official video below, then stream the song on the Spotify player at the end.
Where the “ghetto gospel” in “Fada Fada” came from
The sound did not come from nowhere. Phyno has said the song was “inspired by the gospel music he used to listen to growing up”, which explains the “Ghetto Gospel” in the title. Wikipedia lists it under Afrobeats, highlife and gospel, and one Music in Africa reviewer felt it worked hard not to sound like his earlier hit “Connect”.
It also came together fast. According to Phyno, the two of them recorded it in about three hours, with Olamide laying down his verse first.
