How Wizkid took Afrobeat to the International Stage

Ibrahim Ayodeji Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid is one of the major acts responsible for taking Afrobeat to the International Stage. He is generally considered the Greatest Showman from Africa, with multiple awards, certifications, streams and charts records to his name.

His Songs Essence was the first  African song to go platinum in the United States, enter the Billboard hot 100 and make it to the US Apple Music Top 50 Songs, peaking at No 22, the highest any African song has ever gone on the chart.  These accomplishments by Wizkid were historic moments for the Afrobeat genre and the entire Nigerian music industry as a whole.

Wizkid’s Early Career

Wizkid started singing at the age of 11 when he released a collaborative album with the Glorious Five, a group he formed with a couple of his friends in church. In 2006, he started pursuing music full-time, at first collaborating with various Nigerian pop acts including OJB Jezreel, Naeto C, and Banky W.

The music icon came to Limelight when he released “Holla at Your Boy”, his lead single from his debut studio album, Superstar in 2011 under Empire Mates Entertainment.  The album which was released on June 12, 2011, was rumoured to be the best-selling afrobeat album, selling over five million copies in 2011-2012.

The album won the Best Album of the Year at the 2012 Nigeria Entertainment Awards and was nominated for Album of the Year at The Headies 2012. It is generally considered one of the best debut albums in the history of Nigeria Music. 

In September 2014, Wizkid released his second studio album titled Ayo, the album, had multiple guest appearances, like Femi Kuti, Banky W, Seyi Shay, Phyno, Tyga, Akon, and Wale. The album also featured the singer’s first global track and anthem “Ojuelegba.” marking his status as one of Nigeria’s biggest pop acts.

The song was also picked up and remixed by Drake and Skepta, thrusting Wizkid into the international spotlight. Wizkid departed E.M.E following the release of “Ayo” his second studio album and the expiration of his five-year contract to establish his own Record Label, Starboy Entertainment in 2013.

Global Prominence

In 2016, Wizkid rose to global prominence, after he appeared on Drake’s 2016 smash single “One Dance”. He became the first Afrobeats artist to appear in the 2018 Guinness World Records and his first Grammy nomination for his contribution to “One Dance”. He was also the first African artist to have Gold & platinum certification in the US, UK, and Canada.

In March 2017, he signed a major deal with RCA and Sony International, which would release his third studio album titled, Sounds from the Other Side, later that year. The album featured guest appearances like Drake, Major Lazer, Chris Brown, Ty Dolla Sign, Efya, Bucie, and Trey Songz. Sounds from the Other Side was responsible for Wizkid’s first entry into the major international charts, including the Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart.

In 2019, Beyonce collaborated with Wizkid on “Brown Skin Girl”, taken from the critically acclaimed The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack. The song won the singer two Soul Train Music Awards, an NAACP Image Awards, a BET Awards, and his first Grammy Awards. In the same year, the singer released his first EP titled Soundman Vol. 1.

International  Success

Wizkid attained more international success after releasing his third studio album Made in Lagos, on the 30th of October 2020. Within one week of release,  the album broke several African streaming records. It became the first African album to debut on the Spotify Global Album chart, and within the top ten at that. The album surpassed 100 million streams across five platforms nine days after release, a huge milestone for an Afro-pop artist.

Made In Lagos debuted at no. 15 on the UK Albums Chart and no. 80 on the US Billboard 200, where it peaked at number 28. It spent over 70 weeks on the Billboard world albums chart, making it the longest-charting African album ever in Billboard’s History.  It is also the most-streamed African album with over one billion streams and best selling  Afrobeat album, with over 60,000 units sold in the United Kingdom and almost 500,000 in the United State.

Essence, a track in the Made in Lagos album was unanimously declared the song of the summer all over the world in 2021, The best song of 2021 according to Rolling Stone, that is aside from the Platinum certifications it earned in the United States and Canada, Gold Certification in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

Aside from its cultural influence and certifications Essence holds multiple records on the charts, aside from charting on the US Billboard Hot 100 ( The first Nigerian Song to do so) and peaking at No 9. It also spent multiple weeks in the Number one spot on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart, Peaked no  28 on the Billboard Global 200 Chart, 30 on the Canadian Hot 100 and 16 on the UK singles chart.

His 2021 Made In Lagos Tour is the biggest African tour in the USA with 70,000+ attendees in 15 cities, prior to that he had held a three-day festival at the London 02 arena, where he reportedly raked in N5.2 Billion in gross earnings.