A cognac house has handed its bottle over to an artist who hears music as colour. Maison Martell has unveiled its Afrobeats collection in New York, a pair of limited-edition designs created with Nigerian singer Davido and Ghanaian visual artist Prince Gyasi. The release marks the first major product to come out of Gyasi's new position as the brand's creative partner, following a five-year relationship between Martell and Davido.

The design puts Davido's face at the centre of the VS label, reworked in Gyasi's vivid, flat blocks of colour and ringed with soundwave shapes meant to suggest the singer's worldwide reach. Martell's signature blue runs through the artwork alongside gold and wave-like forms drawn from West African landscapes. A second expression, the XO, was designed separately and will be sold only in Africa, while the VS goes on sale across the United States.

Gyasi's path to the commission began with a phone camera. The Accra-born artist is self-taught, having started taking photographs as a teenager on an iPhone, and he has described experiencing sound as colour and emotion, a trait that shapes his saturated compositions. He went on to become the first African artist to shoot the Pirelli Calendar, creative-directing its 50th-anniversary edition in 2024, earned a place on Time's Next Generation Leaders list in 2023, and has worked with Apple, Off-White and Balmain. Davido, meanwhile, is the most-followed Afrobeats artist on social media and released his sixth studio album, ORIADÉ, in the summer of 2026.

The New York launch, hosted by Martell culture ambassador Adesope Olajide, featured a conversation between the two collaborators and closed with a live performance by Davido. The announcement also coincided with the release of Davido's new video for Already Falling, filmed at Martell's historic Château de Chanteloup estate in Cognac. The VS bottle is available now at American retailers and through Martell's website for $35 while stocks last, with the XO edition to follow in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.