Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun (born 16 July 1990) popularly known as Wizkid and recently also known as Big Wiz. He is a Nigerian Grammy award wining singer, and songwriter. Wizkid signed a record deal with Banky W’s record label Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E) in 2019 before he began his own label Starboy Entertainment in 2013. Wizkid came into the limelight with his hit single “Holla at Your Boy” which was released on 2 January 2010, the song comes from his superstar album which was also released in 2011. The single won him Best Pop Single and earned him the Next Rated award at The Headies 2011.
In 2019, he was featured on Beyonce’s hit single “Brown Skin Girl” off her album titled “The Lion King: The Gift s” which reached number-one on the World Digital Song Sales chart. The music video was released on August 24, 2020. In 2021, The Brow skin girl video won the Best Music Video at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards
On 30th October 2020, Wizkid released his fourth studio album titled “Made In Lagos” which featured Tems, Burna Boy, Skepta, H.E.R, Tay Iwar, Ella Mai, Terri, Damian Marley, and was produced by P2J. Essence“, a single from the album, became the first Nigerian song to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top ten after the remix was released featuring Justin Bieber. By February 2021, Wizkid was the most-streamed Nigerian artist of all time on Spotify, with over 3.4 billion streams across all credits.
In 2022, Wizkid won Five awards at the 15th Headies award held at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta on 14 September 2022 making him among the most awarded artists in a night at headies. Wizkid is currently the most awarded artist in the history of headies.
On September 4th 2022, Kanye West took to his Instagram page to post the essence song cover and caption it, “Best song in the history of music to date.”
Wizkid is set to release his fifth album More Love Less Ego in 2022
Contents
Wizkid Biography
Full Name | Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun |
---|---|
Stage Name | Wizkid, Big Wiz, Wizzu, Machala |
Date of Birth | 16 July 1990 |
Genres | Afrobeats, reggae, dancehall, R&B, hip hop, pop |
Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter |
Active year | 2009 – present |
Net Worth | $16 Million |
Social Media Handles | Instagram: @wizkidayo Twitter: @wizkidayo |
Early Life
Wizkid real name is Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, was born in Surulere, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. His mother is a Christian, and his father is a Muslim. Wizkid, who followed his mother to church, began singing in his local church at the tender age of 11 years. He was not only a good vocalist but also a lead singer.
He managed to release a collaborative album with The Glorious Five, a group he and a couple of his church friends formed. Wizkid signed a record deal with Banky W’s record label Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E) in 2019. In March 2013, Wizkid established his label imprint Starboy Entertainment, and since then Wizkid has signed a lot of artists like Maleek Berry, Efya, R2Bees, and many others, including Terri, who was signed in 2018.
Wizkid is of extraordinary universal notoriety and increased much increasingly worldwide acknowledgment after his coordinated effort with Drake on a tune entitled “One Dance.”
The melody bested the diagram in more than 15 countries including the United States of America (US), United Kingdom (UK), and Canada.
Most likely, Wizkid is probably the best artiste to have come out of Nigeria and the world on the loose. To vouch for his noticeable quality, Wizkid has 12.3M devotees on Twitter and 16.1M adherents on Instagram. What an accomplishment!
Album
- Superstar (2011)
- Ayo (2014)
- Sounds from the Other Side (2017)
- Made in Lagos (2020)
- More love less Ego
Awards
Wizkid has won a few awards approaching a hundred, directly from 2011 when he rose to unmistakable quality till date. In any case, here are only a couple, from 2015 to date:
- 2015: MOBO Awards – Best African Act
- 2016: Ghana Music Awards – Artiste of the Year
- 2017: BET Awards – Best International Act: Africa
- 2017: MOBO Awards – Best International Act
- Likewise in 2017: Future Awards Africa – Young Person of the Year
- 2017: Echo Awards – Song of the Year for “One Dance”
- 2017: Billboard – Top R&B Record for “One Dance”
- 2018: Afrimma – Song of the Year and Video of the Year’ awards for “Soco”
- 2018: Headies Awards – Viewers Choice, Best Music Video, Best R&B, and POP Album
- In 2019, He won Song of The Year at Afrimma Award for his song “Fever”
- 2020: Wizkid Wins “Best African Act” at MOBO Awards 2020
- I2021: Won Best Music Video at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards
- 2021: Apple Music Awards announced him as the winner of Artist of the Year (Africa)
- He is also the most awarded artiste in The Headies award history.
- In 2022: He was nominated in the Best Global Music Album and the Best Global Music Performance categories in the 64th Annual Grammy Awards for Made in Lagos Deluxe Edition and “Essence” respectively.
The artiste who was nominated in 10 categories for the 2022 headies award edition won 5 of the nominations. All thanks to his Made in Lagos album and global hit song ‘Essence’ featuring Tems. On September 4th 2022, Kanye West named Essence the best song in history of music to date after Posting the song cover with the caption.
Wizkid Investment
As expressed before, Wizkid net worth in 2020 is $20 Million. That is, Wizkid is worth 20 million US Dollars in 2020, as per Forbes. That is a ton.
He merits it however, StarBoy has satisfied his obligations.
Here is a portion of his moneymakers:
Wizkid is the CEO of StarBoy Entertainment, his record name, which he began in 2013
In 2012: Wizkid marked a one-year endorsement deal with Pepsi supposedly worth 350,000 U.S dollars
2013: Wizkid marked a one-year deal with MTN Nigeria. His agreement deal with Pepsi was additionally restored for an additional two years.
Additionally in 2013: he marked an endorsement deal with Guinness for the “Guinness World of More” show, which was held at the Eko Convention Center of the Eko Hotel and Suites in Victoria Island, Lagos on 3 November 2013.
2015: Wizkid marked a ₦128 million deal with GLO and dumped MTN.
2018: Wizkid marked a deal with CIROC worth a few thousand dollars.
He likewise accomplices consistently with mainstream brands, for example, D&G, Gucci, and Nike. He even worked together with Nike to create his well-known Star Boy Jersey.
2019: United Bank for Africa (UBA) declared Wizkid as their image envoy.
Wizkid owns a mansion in Lekki, Lagos worth N140 million and another in Atalanta, US.
Wizkid owns a lot of cars including a Porsche Carrera, a Bentley Bentayga, a Toyota Land Cruiser, a Range Rover Sport, and a Chevrolet Camaro GS, among other
Networth
Starting today, passing by the Forbes rundown of the most extravagant African performers, Wizkid’s net worth in 2020 is estimated to be $16 Million.
Endorsement deals
- 2012: $350,000 1 year Pepsi deal
- 2013: N45 million MTN 1 year deal, Guinness
- 2014: Hennessy
- 2015: N128 million 1 year Glo deal
- *renewed Pepsi deal multiple times
- 2018: Ciroc
- 2019: N1 billion UBA deal
- Organizations
- Moschino
- Daily Paper
- Nike
- D&G.
- Puma
Wizkid Social Media Handles
- Instagram: @wizkidayo
- Twitter: @wizkidayo