Wizkid has received another accolade, as RollingStone has named his global blockbuster hit, Essence, as the best song of 2021 in a new list issued recently.
RollingStone has just announced its selection of the best songs of 2021, and at the top of that list is none other than “Essence” by Nigerian Superstar, Wizkid. On Monday, December 6th, 2021, the list was made public.
Essence, dubbed “the song of the summer” by many, is a track from Wizkid’s Made in Lagos album, which was released in 2020.
The afro-pop song, which includes Tems, a great Nigerian singer, is a calming mid-tempo song that has swept over the global music landscape.
Addressing why Essence topped the list, Rollingstone writes;
“Wizkid’s massive international hit offered the best vision possible of our eternally shrinking world: at once local and global, intimate and universal. On it, the Nigerian singer, one of the most popular pop artists in Africa, embraced one of his country’s newest talents.
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Their performances are distinct yet seamless, joining together over a melange of Nineties American R&B, U.K. Afroswing, and percussive Nigerian Afrobeats. “Essence” hit the top of several U.S. charts in 2021 after it got a Justin Bieber remix this summer, but its reach was wide well before.”
Aside from this recent achievement, Essence has previously achieved numerous milestones, including breaking into the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 (making it the highest-ranking African song ever to do so), accumulating over 60 million streams on Apple Music, and becoming the first African song to enter the top 10 on Apple Music in the United States, among other achievements.
The RollingStone Best Songs of 2021 list isn’t the first time Essence has been recognized; the Wizkid song was just featured on Spotify’s Best Pop Songs of 2021.