Nigerian singer-songwriter, Joseph Akinfenwa, better known as Joeboy, has said that his hit song, Alcohol, was not released to promote alcholism.

Ever since the track hit the air waves, it has been greeted with diverse reactions, and has even triggered #Alchoholchallenge on social media which sees youths drinking alcohol and some harmful liquids and this led to some unfortunate incidents.

However, in an interview with an online platform, Genius, Joeboy stated that that was not his intention.

He said; “Being tipsy inspired ‘Alcohol’. There are different challenges in life; it never ends. There is always something one needs to fix or solve. I am not encouraging alcoholism in any way but I understand that people need breaks but trying to run away from one’s problems won’t fix them at the end of the day.”

Sharing his thoughts on the success of the song, he said; “It is really special for me, seeing how big the song is becoming and how big it is going to get. It was a different step (direction) in my sound. It’s not like the regular Joeboy sound that people are used to. I am more or less known as a lover boy. I am not saying it’s a bad thing but I wanted to explore different sounds. Alcohol is the first step in evolving my sound.”

The singer, also admitted that he was nervous before the song was released.

He said; “I was a bit nervous before the song was released because I was not sure if people were going to accept it. It is totally different from what I normally do. The reception has been amazing so far. It is my biggest charting song since the beginning of my career.”