Wizkid Gets The Economist’s Nod As ‘Nigeria’s Globar Star’

FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

Things are really looking so pretty good for Nigerian multiple award-winning Afro-pop singer Wizkid.

Just as he has been making waves on the continent, particularly his home country, Nigeria, breaking the music charts and packing up concert venues home and abroad, the Sony Music artiste (born Ayo Balogun) has also caught the attention of the highly respected global weekly The Economist as is the cover star for the August/September edition of its culture series ‘What The World Is Listening To’.

Wizkid is spotlighted alongside other international artistes on 1843, a publication of The Economist.

In a short profile written in the magazine titled ‘Wiz-quid pro quo’, the StarBoi is described as “Nigeria’s global star,” that got “Sony Record executives giddy at the commercial prospects of more cultural cross-pollination.”

“With their heady brew of West African rhythms and American funk, Afrobeat pioneers like Fela Kuti packed dance floors from Lagos to New York in the 1970s. Since then, Nigeria has unearthed few global stars. Enter Wizkid, who with his Nigerian twist on commercial pop, known as Afrobeats in deference to his forebears, commands a global following.

“On a recent single “Come Closer”, dance-hall rhythms underpin vocals from both Wizkid and Drake, a Canadian rapper who invited Wizkid to rap last year on his song “One Dance”, the biggest hit of 2016. With other North American stars lined up for Wizkid’s major-label debut with Sony, record executives are giddy at the commercial prospects of more cultural cross-pollination.

The Afropop singer has really got Sony Music excited at the commercial prospects of his debut international project, ‘Sounds From The Other Side’, (SFTOS).

While Wizkid has consistently maintained that SFTOS is an EP (Extended Play) project, many in the global music industry refer to it as an album.

SFTOS is presently on some of Billboard’s top charts, including top 200 albums, top albums sales and world albums.

Also featured in the August/September edition of 1843′ ‘What The World Is Listening To’ are Sound and Fury from Venezuela; Acrush, a boyband made up of girls, from China; Teddy Afro, a popular Ethiopian singer, among others.

Nigerian singers, Tekno and Mr Eazi, were featured in the June/July edition of the spotlight series.