Artist: Darey
Song: Not The Girl
Album: unDAREYted
Genre: R&B
Released: 2009
Duration: 5:04
Label: Soul Muzik
Few Nigerian love songs from the late 2000s landed like Darey’s “Not The Girl”. By February 2009, roughly two months after it reached radio, the ballad had climbed to number one in Nigeria.
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The song addresses a woman named Owoyemi Akinwale, but Darey has made it clear she isn’t a real person. He said the song “isn’t directed at anybody”, and explained that the name came from Natz, 2Face’s manager, who was in the studio sharing ideas while they worked.
Its video, shot in Cape Town, won Best R&B Video and Best Male Video at the 2009 Channel O Music Video Awards, along with honours at the Nigeria Entertainment Awards and the Nigerian Music Video Awards that same year.
Take a trip back to 2009. Play “Not The Girl” below and enjoy one of the songs that made Darey a household name.
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Start reading now →The heart behind “Not The Girl”
Darey has described “Not The Girl” as mostly fiction, but he never treated it lightly. He called it “a sincere, heartfelt song” and said he and Cobhams Asuquo worked hard to make sure the delivery reached listeners. In his view, the song lands hardest with people who are going through the situation it describes, or who have been close to it.
