Mp3bullet.ng put together a list of records Wizkid has broken in 2021 so far.
Wizkid has been on a rollercoaster since the beginning of 2021, from his song, “Essence” breaking records to his sold-out shows, Big Wiz has broken records in the music industry.
In 2021, The Afrobeat Influencer clocked 31 years with the year seeing his status in the global music scene skyrocketed.
His 2020 album, “Made In Lagos” has helped in pushing to the forefront of the International music scene setting him apart from his peers.
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So, Mp3bullet.ng presents the top Records Wizkid has broken in 2021 so far
Winning his first Grammy
WizKid won his first Grammy Award earlier this year for his contributions to Beyonce’s song “Brown Skin Girl” from her music film Black Is King, which was released in conjunction with the live-action Lion King movie.
The song was named Best Music Video of the Year. On the same night, fellow artist Burna Boy won an award, making the two the first Nigerians to win one of the coveted golden gramophones as a single act.
Essence Topping US Shazam charts
“Essence” has been Wizkid’s biggest selling point for 2021. Since the beginning of the year, “Essence” has aided Wizkid in breaking barriers.
On August 31, 2021, ‘Essence,’ which features Tems, became the most searched song on music search site Shazam in the US.
This feat made the trailblazing record become the second African song to reach a Shazam milestone in less than a year.
The first was Master KG’s “Jerusalema” which became the most Shazamed song in the world in Q4 2020.
“Made In Lagos” becoming the Highest Nigerian Charting album on Billboard 200
Wizkid’s 2020 album, “Made In Lagos” has also been doing well since its release most especially this year.
The album recently peaked at No. 28 on Billboard 200, and up 53% in sales. Officially making the album set a new record as the highest-charting Nigerian album of all-time on Billboard 200.
The album beat Burna Boy’s ‘Twice as Tall‘ which peaked at No. 54 at the time of its release.
Essence cracking Billboard 100
Another feat Big Wiz has been to accomplish is being the first Nigerian to have a single on the Billboard Hot 100.
While he and some other Nigerian artists have been able to do this but as a result of being featured by a foreign artist, this would be the first time a Nigerian Song would achieve a feat with any international collaboration.
On July 12, 2021, ‘Essence’ became the first Nigerian song to crack the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The song debuted at No.82 before jumping to No.72 the following week.
By August, after spending seven weeks on the chart, Essence climbed to No. 16 jumping 24 spots on the chart.
Finally bringing his dream collaboration with Justin Bieber to reality
In 2021, Mp3bullet.ng reported about Justin Bieber jumping on the remix of ‘Essence” joining the many lists of top international artists Wizkid has featured on his song.
From what Mp3bullet.ng gathered, this remix came about after Bieber’s A&R played the song for him while on a flight with the Canadian pop star.
Bieber who fell in love with the song through his management reached out to Wizkid’s team thereby laying the foundation for the remix.
Once the remix was released, it gained popularity as music lovers took to social media to praise Justin Bieber’s for being able to deliver beautifully on an Afrobeat record.
The remix within few days amassed millions of streams on various streaming platforms and even topped the Billboard chart for R&B/Hip-Hop song airplay.
It is also the first African song to reach No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, demonstrating Wizkid’s crossover appeal.
Becoming the first African Artist to sell out a 3 days event in the O2 in a record-breaking time
Selling out the iconic O2 arena has been a major goal for Nigerian Artists with Wizkid and Davido being the only two Nigerian artists to achieve this feat.
However, this 2021 Wizkid raised the bar so high after he sold his “Made In Lagos” concert in a record-breaking 12 minutes.
This feat made him the first African artist to achieve such sales at the prestigious London venue.
After tickets to his “Made In Lagos” O2 concert sold out in 12 minutes, fans being to demand more dates from the singer.
Wizkid obliged his fans request and dropped another date but tickets to the event got sold out within 2 minutes breaking his first record.
Immediately a third date was announced but just like other dates, tickets to that date was sold out within 35 minutes.
Selling out a three days event at the O2 arena has never been done before by any African Artist making this one of the records Wizkid has broken.
He has also sold most of the cities for his “Made In Lagos” tour that would see perform in North America from September to January 2022.
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Essence earning a silver certification in the UK
Nigerian artists from Davido to Burna Boy have all earned certification from different countries with their songs, even Wizkid has.
However, “Essence” became the first song to earn a certification in a short amount of time. It earned its first certification in the UK after making sales of 200,000 units in the country.
This became Wizkid’s third song to earn a certification.
“Come Closer” certified gold in the UK
One of Wizkid’s iconic international collaborations remains “Come Closer” featuring Drake. The song which has amassed hundreds of millions of streams on Youtube was certified Gold in the UK this year.
This also became Wizkid’s second gold certification as a lead artist as the song has been certified Gold in the US and platinum in Canada.
“Come Closer” was released as the third single from Wizkid’s third studio album, Sounds from the Other Side.
In September 2020, Wizkid became the first African artist to be certified Gold (both) as a featured and lead artist in the United States.
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Being On Forbes Africa Icon List and winning a NAACP award
In April, Mp3bullet.ng reported that Wizkid was among the top African celebrities who made it to the Forbes Africa icon list for 2021.
The singer was named alongside fellow artists Davido, Burna Boy and Mr Eazi, popular writer, Chimamanda Adichie and actresses, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Genevive Nnaji and Funke Akindele Bello.
In March, the 2021 NAACP Image Award for his collaboration with Beyonce on Brown Skin Girl, making it his second time to clinch the prestigious award.
This came after he won it in 2020 in the ‘Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration’ category with the same song.