Nigerian artist Wizkid’s fourth studio album is titled “Made in Lagos.” The 30th of October 2020 saw its release by RCA Records and Starboy Entertainment. Burna Boy, Skepta, H.E.R., Ella Mai, Tay Iwar, Projexx, Tems, Damian Marley, and Terri all had guest performances on the album, which P2J executive produced. On August 27, 2021, the deluxe edition was made available. Buju and Justin Bieber make extra cameo appearances in it. Wizkid set out on the Made in Lagos Tour to promote the record (2021–2022). The album was nominated for Best Global Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
Notable Singles
The singles “Joro” and “Ghetto Love,” which Wizkid initially hinted at as Made in Lagos promotional singles, were released in late 2019. The EP Soundman Vol. 1, featuring Chronixx and a range of other artists with a focus mostly on Wizkid, was released on December 6 by Wizkid’s label, Starboy Entertainment. Afro-European market research for Made in Lagos was mentioned as a marketing tactic.
The album’s lead song, “Smile,” a collaboration between Wizkid and American artist H.E.R., was released on July 16, 2020. In the first week of the UK Afrobeats Singles Chart’s existence, the song debuted at No. 3 and was included on Barack Obama’s summer 2020 playlist. The single “No Stress” by Wizkid was made available on September 17.
The fourth single from the album, “Essence,” featuring Tems, was made available on April 9, 2021. A remix of the song featuring Canadian singer Justin Bieber was made available on August 13, 2021. The song peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the highest-charting single by an African act. Additionally, “Essence” made history as the first song from Nigeria to chart on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Global 200.
The “Made in Lagos” (MIL) album by Star Boy has achieved the notable accomplishments listed below since its debut.
- ‘Made In Lagos’ is the first African album to debut on the US Spotify Global Albums Chart.
- ‘Made In Lagos’ is the first Nigerian album to spend multiple weeks atop the Billboard World Album Chart spending three weeks at the top of the chart.
- ‘Made In Lagos’ spent 86 weeks on the Billboard World Album Charts, thus becoming the longest charting Nigerian project in the chart’s history. It tops Fela’s “The Black President‘ which spent 45 weeks on the chart.
- ‘Made In Lagos’ is the first Nigerian album to spend consecutive weeks at the summit of the Billboard World Album Charts, spending 7 weeks at the top.
- ‘Made In Lagos’ earned a Grammy nomination in the World Album Category at the 2022 Grammy Awards. “Essence” also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Global Song.
- ‘Made In Lagos’ peaked at number 28 on the Billboard 200, which was a Nigerian record at the time.
- “Made In Lagos’ is the first African album to be certified Gold in the United States.
- “Essence” is the first Afrobeats song to earn a platinum plaque in the United States, and it’s also the only Nigerian song to be double platinum.
- ‘Essence’ won the Collaboration of the Year at the 2022 BET awards making it the first Afrobeats song to win a major category in the history of the BET.
- The “Essence” remix peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the highest charting Afrobeats song on the chart.
- Highest-charting Nigerian album of all time on the Billboard 20 chart (No. 28)
- Longest-charting Nigerian album this century on the Billboard 200 chart (17 weeks).
- Longest-charting Nigerian album of all time on the Billboard World Albums chart (50 weeks).
- The first Nigerian album to spend multiple weeks at #1 on the Billboard World Albums chart (3 weeks).
- The first Nigerian album to spend a year on the Billboard World Albums Chart.
- Longest-charting Nigerian album on the UK Albums chart this decade (6 weeks).
- First Nigerian artist in history to simultaneously chart on the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 (16 weeks).
- The first Nigerian song to reach the top of the Hot 100 was “Essence”.
- Longest-charting single by an African artist on the Hot 100 – “Essence”
- “Essence” is the first African song to sell over 1.5 million units (almost multi-Platinum) in the U.S. – “Essence”.
- The first African album to reach the Top 5 on U.S. Apple Music.
- The first African album to debut on the Spotify U.S. album and Global album charts (No. 10).
- The first Nigerian album to score two entries on the U.K singles chart: “Essence” (No. 16), and “Ginger” (No. 67).
- Highest-peaking African album on U.S iTunes – No. 3
- It surpassed 1 billion streams across Apple Music, Audiomack, Spotify, YouTube, Boomplay, and Pandora in 10 months.
- He won the Best Collaboration award at the BET Soul Train 2021 awards ceremony with the hit track ‘Essence’.
- The “Made in Lagos” 3-day London O2 Arena concert, which sold over 48,000 tickets, has been tagged by the host as the fastest-selling show of all time in the arena.
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