Entertainment
Congratulatory messages ‘floods’ Wzkid at 32
The Grammy-award winning star singer, Ayo Balogun, alias Wizkid is celebrating his 32 years birthday, but the moment has been hijacked by his fans who endlessly pour in congratulatory messages.
The Twitter space is currently on fire as over 90,000 tweets were recorded in the early hours of Saturday based on Wizkid’s birthday alone.
Hashtag #Wizkidat32 was created by fans to share tweets and videos to celebrate the musical youngster.
Tagging the singer as the greatest afrobeats singer of all time, the Twitter user, @DonK1ddy posted, “Happy birthday to the greatest afrobeats artiste of all time Big Wiz. God bless you for giving us sweet sounds and more bragging rights … #WizkidAt32 God bless you again #WizkidAt32 #WizkidAt32.”
In 2009, Wizkid signed a record deal with Banky W’s Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E). He later rose to the limelight after releasing “Holla at Your Boy”, the lead single from his debut studio album, Superstar (2011), which also spawned the singles “Tease Me/Bad Guys” and “Don’t Dull”. In September 2014, he released the self-titled second studio album, Ayo. The album was supported by six singles, including the song “Jaiye Jaiye”.
Sharing a video of Wizkid doing a freestyle, the Twitter user, @timiPR wrote, “I was in 100L in school when this video dropped and I could remember disturbing my roommates with it… I even had to master it word for word. Big Wiz’s growth is amazing, this kinda p ain’t regular at all.”
Sending prayers to the music star, the Twitter user, @Nathcious_media wrote, “#WizkidAt32 Happy Birthday to you Africa legend @wizkidayo. May Almighty God continue to guide you and protect you in Jesus name… More life Machala and Goodness and Mercy shall follow you all the day of your life.”
Wizkid started recording music at the age of 11 and released a collaborative album with the Glorious Five (5), a group he and a couple of his church friends formed.
Wizkid left E.M.E after his contract expired. In 2016, Wizkid achieved international recognition following his collaboration with Drake on the hit single “One Dance”, which reached number-one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in 14 additional countries. The song broke multiple records, making Wizkid the first afrobeats artiste to appear in the Guinness World Records.
In March 2017, he signed a multi-album deal with RCA Records; and released his third studio album Sounds from the Other Side, later that year. The album was supported by five singles, including “Come Closer” featuring Drake.
In 2018, he was featured on the song “Checklist” by Normani and Calvin Harris, which reached number one on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart.
The following year, he was featured on Beyoncé’s project The Lion King: The Gift on the single “Brown Skin Girl”, which also reached number-one on the World Digital Song Sales chart, and won him a Grammy Award for Best Music Video.
In October 2020, he released his fourth album, Made in Lagos, which received commercial success and acclaim reaching number one on the Billboard World Album Chart.
The album includes the single “Essence” featuring Tems, which became the first Nigerian song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, and reached the top ten following a remix released by Justin Bieber. Wizkid’s fifth album More Love Less Ego is set for release soon.
By February 2021, Wizkid was the most-streamed Nigerian artist of all time on Spotify, with over 3.4 billion streams across all credits