Nigerian pop star Wizkid turns 28 years old today. Born Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun on 16 July 1990, the singer and head of Starboy Entertainment Worldwide is of the biggest music export Africa has ever had.
The Nigerian singer and songwriter who is also one of the most influential Africans started recording music at age 11 with a couple of his church friends and they formed a music group named ‘Glorious Five’ managing to release a collaborative album together.
Wizkid signed a record deal with Banky W’s then record label Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E) in 2009. He first caught the industry attention in 2010 with the release of his debut single “Holla at Your Boy”, which was the lead single from his debut studio album, Superstar released in June 2011. “Tease Me/Bad Guys”, “Don’t Dull”, “Love My Baby”, “Pakurumo” and “Oluwa Lo Ni” were also released as singles from the Superstar album.
In September 2014, Wizkid released his second studio album, ‘Ayo’, with hits such as the lead single “Jaiye Jaiye”. It also contained other chart-topping songs such as “Show You the Money”, “One Question”, “On Top Your Matter”, “Joy”, “Bombay” and so on.
In 2016 parted ways with EME after the expiration of his 5-year recording contract. in that same year, his hit single ‘Ojuelegba’ got a remix done which featured Canadian born international rapper Drake and British born Nigerian rapper Skepta. His international profile continued to soar as he went on to feature on the Grammy award-winning global hit song collaboration with Drake titled ‘One Dance’, off the latter’s ‘Views’ album. The song would reach number one in 15 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
Wizkid confirmed an international deal with Sony RCA in 2017 and released his third solo project ‘Sounds From The Other Side’ under the imprint. SFTOS had the hit single ‘Come Closer’ featuring Drake and also had other international stars like Future, Trey Songs, Chris Brown and Travis Scott all making appearances on it.
In addition to his solo work, Wizkid has collaborated with several other memorable hit songs with top Nigerian stars including “Omotosho” (Olamide”Girl” (with Bracket), “Fine Lady” (with Lynxxx), “Sexy Mama” (with Iyanya), “Slow Down” (with R2Bees), “The Matter” (with Maleek Berry), “Pull Over” (with KCee) and “Bad Girl” (with Jesse Jagz).
Wizkid has had an illustrious career. which has seen him pick up three Billboard Music Awards, two BET Awards, two iHeartRadio Music Awards, one MTV Europe Music Award, four MAMA Awards, SoundCity MVPs, the ree MOBO Awards, six Headies Awards, Channel O Music Video Awards, six Nigeria Entertainment Awards, One Future Award and lots more.
Not one far from controversies, Wizkid has 3 sons from 3 different women with the first son Bolutife coming in 2011 when he was just 21 with Shola Ogudu. Wizkid’s second child Ayo arrived in 2016 with Guinean model, Binta Diallo. His last child Zion was bored by his current manager Jada P.
Happy Birthday to the Starboy of Africa!
