Songfacts®:

• Fireboy DML (birth name Adedamola Adefolahan) is a Nigerian singer-songwriter whose music is a mixture of Afrobeats and R&B. His breakthrough single, an Afropop head-bopper titled "Jealous," won the Listener's Choice prize at the 2020 Soundcity MVP Awards Festival. Fireboy recorded "Peru" after Nigerian producer Shizzi (Wizkid, Davido) invited him over to San Francisco to listen to some beats.
• The song retells Fireboy's first summer in the US.
  
  I'm in San Francisco jamming
  Wo ni won wa mi
  Wo ni won wa mi
  I just flew in from Miami
  
  While over in America, he falls in love with a girl.
  
  She say she like my tunes
  She say me I never see a guy like you
• The chorus is a play on Fireboy's fellow Nigerian singer Peruzzi and the country of Peru.
  
  Peru para
  Peru Peru para
  I'm loo
  Even Peru don dey para
  
  "Para" means losing control in the Nigerian pidgin language. Here, Fireboy nods to Peruzzi's chorus on "4U," his song with DJ Ecool and Davido, where he sings: "Baby I'm loosing con control."
• The song took Fireboy less than an hour to put together. By letting go of his perfectionist inclinations, he could enjoy the music-making process, and his relaxed frame of mind led to the carefree lyrics. "The song is really about a young man in a foreign land, enjoying himself," the Nigerian singer told Rolling Stone, "and just coming out of his shell and having fun and living life."
• Shizzy produced the track, adding some subtle dancehall influences to Fireboy's "Afro-Life" music.
• Fireboy DML released "Peru" on July 16, 2021. Six months later, he dropped the international remix featuring a verse by his hero, Ed Sheeran. Several years previously, the English pop star's songs inspired Fireboy to learn how to play the acoustic guitar. Also, "Need You," the guitar-led opening track of the Nigerian's debut album, Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps, borrows instrumentally from Sheeran's track "Tenerife Sea."
• Ed Sheeran has form for contributing to Afrobeats songs. In 2017 he co-wrote "Bibia Be Ye Ye" for his Divide album with British-Ghanaian artist Fuse ODG. Two years later, he featured alongside Nigerian star Burna Boy on Stormzy's "Own It."
• So what do the Peruvians think of this song? Well, their government certainly approves. They tweeted in support of the international remix: "PERU PARA, PERU PERU PARA!!! Seems like Ed Sheeran and Fireboy DML were inspired by our country to launch their newest hit? Have you already listened to it? It's called "Peru" and sounds really catchy!"
• Fireboy recorded "Peru" as a spontaneous freestyle during a studio session with Nigerian producer Shizzi after arriving tired and drunk off a flight from Miami. "He just played me the beat. I was really tipsy, like, 'You know what? Let's just do this, man.,'" he recalled to Billboard. "I was in a different headspace. I was in the mood for anything."
  
  Fireboy added that until his trip to the States in 2021, he had led an overly cautious life. He didn't go out, didn't mingle and was always very careful with his relationships. The Nigerian singer-songwriter told himself that during his American trip, he would open up and leave the cage he'd put around himself. "That's what the song is all about," Fireboy said. "I just got in the booth for 35 minutes and told my story. Not in the most profound of ways, but it's a feel-good song, and that's the point."
• Fireboy DML dropped another remix featuring verses by Blxst and 21 Savage on February 11, 2022.