Afrobeats superstar Tiwa Savage has revealed that she initially didn’t like “Dorobucci,” one of Mavin Records’ biggest hits, despite its later success.
In an interview with NotJustOk, the singer shared that during her wedding trip in Dubai, she repeatedly heard producer Don Jazzy playing the unfinished track at their hotel, but she didn’t realize it was a Mavin project.
“Don’t know if people know this, but ‘Dorobucci,’ I had Don Jazzy playing that in the hotel when we were in Dubai for my wedding, and I didn’t want to tell him, but I thought it was such a crap song,” she confessed.
Tiwa recounted that after her wedding, Don Jazzy insisted she cut her honeymoon short and return to Nigeria to work on a new record.
“And so after the wedding, he asked me when I was going to come back, and I needed to come back. And I was like, no, I think we’re supposed to go on our honeymoon. He’s like, eh, there’s one record, you have to come back to Nigeria,” she recalled.
She added that when she eventually heard the completed version of “Dorobucci” in the studio, she was amazed by how much it had transformed, a change that would ultimately make it one of the defining Afrobeats anthems of its era.
“I got back to Nigeria, and I got to the studio, and I heard the song that I heard him play in Dubai. I was flabbergasted. I was so angry, like, I don’t know, because this had happened with Eminado too, and I did not like it,” she said.
Tiwa also admitted she was hesitant about recording her verse, being the last of the Mavin artists to do so, while her labelmates embraced the track.
“I was the last person to record my verse because I was just looking at everybody in the studio, like, do you guys like this really? So everybody had recorded it and then I was just the last person to record it,” she explained.
Despite her initial doubts, Dorobucci went on to achieve massive success. Tiwa credited Don Jazzy’s vision and production skills for the song’s phenomenal impact.
“We all know what happened to the record. I don’t know what Don Jazzy does, but yeah, that was… I heard it, and I didn’t want to tell him. I was like, man, who, I was like, is it Reekado he’s doing this song for? Is it Korede or D’ija? I was just thinking, ehyaa, like these people, not knowing that I was going to be on the song as well. And it turned out to be phenomenal. So shout out as always to Don Jazzy,” she concluded.