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| WizKid |
R n’ B. Rap. Hip Hop. Afrobeat. The list is extensive. Africans have always celebrated this success with a sense of great pride, while at the same time their own homegrown acts remained in the shadows. But in recent years we have finally seen this change. African musicians have stepped forward and are shining more brightly than ever before, with many of the biggest American stars seeking them out to collaborate. In doing so, they have helped introduce them onto the world stage. Among these acts are a large number of Nigerians. In the first of a three part article we are going to highlight the most popular of them, and their achievements...
First up is Wizkid, who is arguably Nigeria’s biggest musical success story of current times…
Wizkid was born Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun in 1990, in Surulere, Lagos. He started singing at age 11. Although his parents were not initially supportive of his career choice, his hard work and time spent in the studio eventually won them over...
It was during this time in the studio that he got to watch 2Baba and Sound Sultan recording. These legends of the Naija music scene inspired him both musically, and in terms of his work ethic.
He was just 11 years old when he released his first album as part of a group called the Glorious Five, which consisted of him and two of his friends from church. But it was as a solo artist that he found fame, when Banky W signed him to his Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E.) label.
His debut studio album, Superstar, was released on the label in 2011, two years after he was first signed. It's first single, "Holla at Your Boy" brought him to the nations attention and earned him a Next Rated award and a Best Pop Single nomination at that year's "Headies". The video for the track was nominated for Most Gifted Newcomer Video at the Channel O Music Video Awards. It was also nominated for Best Afro Pop Video at the Nigeria Music Video Awards (NMVA). Superstar won him Best Album of the Year at the 2012 Nigeria Entertainment Awards and a nomination for Album of the Year at The Headies.
2012 was one of his busiest years, with international performances and tours. He and a number of E.M.E. signed artists toured major cities in the US & Canada to promote their compilation album "Empire Mates State of Mind". He also toured London in 2012, and was part of the line-up for BBC Radio 1Xtra Live at the Brixton Academy alongside Trey Songz, Tulisa, Kendrick Lamar and Angel. He signed a one-year endorsement deal with Pepsi worth a reported 350,000 U.S dollars.
The following year he established his own label, Starboy Entertainment. As well as representing artists, the company plans to expand into management, clothing and footwear brands.
He released a mix tape which featured US artist Wale and the UK's Tinie Tempah. And he performed with Tinie Tempah as a special guest on several of his UK tour dates the next year.
After amicably parting ways with E.M.E., his second album, Ayo was released on his own Starboy label in 2014. The album's lead single "Jaiye Jaiye" featured Femi Kuti who he decided to collaborate with to show that his lyrics don't revolve purely around girls, cars and shallow materialism. He later released a single with American star Chris Brown, called "African Bad Girl". The song has never officially been released but they have performed it together several times on stage, including on Chris Brown’s world tour in 2016.
2016 was the year where he reached insane new heights, thanks to a collaboration with another US artist; this time it was international megastar, Drake. Their track "One Dance” reached number 1 in 15 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France and Germany. As a result, Wizkid became Nigeria's first artist to feature on Billboard + Twitter's "Last 24 hours chart". It was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 10 non-consecutive weeks and helped him become the first Nigerian artist to gain over 1 million Twitter followers. (Previous to this international success he had already collaborated with a large number of successful Nigerian and African artists. He was already rated 5th in Forbes magazine's Top Ten Most Bankable African stars.)
Following One Dance's success he signed a staggering seven figure deal with Sony's RCA records. He brought out an official version of "Shabba," (a track dedicated to the Jamaican dancehall legend Shabba Ranks) in July of that year, featuring the all-star cast of Chris Brown, Trey Songz and French Montana. Chris Brown made a second version available on his own SoundCloud. Instead of Trey and French Montana, that version featured Hoody Baby of Brown's OHB crew and the Section Boyz, a 6-member rap group from South London.
2017 has already gotten off to a brilliant start for Wizkid, with yet another Drake collaboration. The track is called Hush Up The Silence and was premiered on Drake’s OVO radio show on Apple Music at the start of February. No official announcement or release has been made yet.
Wizkid is ranked number 11 on the iTunes/Spotify global ranking, just behind artists like Adele. In total so far he has won a BET Award, a MOBO Award, five Headies Awards, two Channel O Music Video Awards, six Nigeria Entertainment Awards, two Ghana Music Awards, two Dynamix All Youth Awards, two City People Entertainment Awards, and a Future Award.
He has received three nominations at the MTV Europe Music Awards and been nominated four times at the World Music Awards. He was also nominated at this year’s Grammys courtesy of Drake‘s 2016 album, Views which was nominated for Best Album. The award is given to the main artiste, the featured artiste(s), the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer. (As Wizkid has credit as both producer and featured artiste he was included in the nomination.)
References:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizkid_(musician)
http://thenet.ng/2013/03/video-wizkid-confirms-wale-tinie-tempah-for-april-mixtape/
http://www.okayafrica.com/in-brief/wizkid-drake-hush-up-the-silence-download/
http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/listen-to-wizkid-and-drakes-hush-up-the-silence-news.28526.html
http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/wizkid-chris-brown-trey-songz-and-french-montana-shabba-official-prod-by-mike-will-made-it-new-song.1970433.html
http://www.afrizap.com/en/wizkid-starboy
http://allafrica.com/stories/201606200113.html
https://www.bellanaija.com/2016/12/nigerias-wizkid-kah-lo-nominated-for-the-2017-grammy-awards/
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7597556/grammys-nominees-complete-list-2017
http://www.okayafrica.com/in-brief/wizkid-signs-record-breaking-deal-sony-music-rca/
http://thechronicle.com.gh/sarkodie-makes-forbes-top-10-richest-africa-artistes/
http://thenet.ng/2014/09/wizkid-confirms-hes-finally-set-to-leave-e-m-e/
With that been said, this guy is really big and a great global success!! Neck up Wizzy, good job!!!
Written by Jennifer Menzies for SwaGG News Africa
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| Jennifer Menzies |
Posted by @pocarlee
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