Flavour’s evergreen floor-filler “Nwa Baby (Ashawo Remix)” has been ranked No. 3 on Billboard’s 50 Best Afrobeats Songs of All Time, a fresh nod to the 2011 smash that still powers weddings, hall parties, and club sets more than a decade on.
Flavour
Before it took over dance floors, “Nwa Baby” began life as a contemporary highlife cut on Flavour’s 2005 debut N’abania. The 2011 reprise reimagined the song as a cultural bridge: its melody traces back to Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson’s 1960s classic “Sawale,” while the remix leans on a dancehall drum pattern—honouring Flavour’s Igbo roots even as it widened the song’s global footprint. The result is arguably the most international record in his catalogue.
Billboard’s editors say the ranking weighed stylistic representation, local popularity, regional spread, cultural impact, and commercial success. With contributors from the U.S., U.K., and Nigeria—and a three-songs-per-artist cap—the list charts how Afrobeats gathered momentum at home before erupting worldwide under the banner “Afrobeats to the world.”
For Flavour, the placement cements “Nwa Baby (Ashawo Remix)” as a time-proof anthem—one that distilled highlife heritage, pop instinct, and street-smart swagger into a single record that still gets every generation on its feet.
