In recent years, Africans have taken the lead in the music entertainment world, especially those under the Afrobeat genre and others.
This is evident in recent times as many more African are getting and expecially Nigerians are getting international nominations and actually winning the Grammy. This was not so few decades back. What has changed!
This simply reveals that the local music industry has developed more than it used to be and moved into the global stage.
Among several talents that Africa has produced are the trio of Wizkid, Burna Boy and Black Sheriff whose music has grown beyond the shores of Africa and are now globally acclaimed maestros.
Let us look into these African giants’ rise to stardom in the music industry.
– Wizkid
Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, professionally known as Wizkid is an award-winning Nigerian Afrobeat singer that was born on July 16 1990, in Lagos Nigeria.
He is no doubt, one of the most influential African artists.
When we talk about his rise to fame, there is a need to mention that he began at a very tender age, precisely at the age of 11, when he first recorded and released a collaborative album with the glorious five. The glorious five was a group formed by wizkid and his church friends.
In 2009, he signed a record deal with Empire Mate Entertainment, which was owned by popular R&B singer Banky W. Wizkid came to the limelight when he released the song titled: ‘Holla at your boy’.
In 2016, Wizkid achieved international recognition following his collaboration with Drake on the hit single ‘One Dance’, which reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in 14 other countries.
The song broke multiple records, making Wizkid the first Afrobeats artist to appear in the Guinness World Records.
Wizkid’s contributions to the music industry have earned him several achievements, including his first-ever Grammy Award for Best Music Video as a lead artist on Beyoncé’s ‘Brown Skin Girl’.
He has received several awards from the BET Awards, Soul Train Awards, Billboard Awards, iHeartRadio Music Awards and MOBO Awards.
Wizkid is also a recipient of an ASCAP plaque for his song writing contributions to Drake’s ‘One Dance’, which also earned two Guinness World Records, for being the first song to reach a billion streams on Spotify, and at the time being the most streamed song on Spotify.
One thing that has worked for him over the years has been his doggedness even in the face of criticism.
Burna Boy
No one can talk about Burna Boy without talking about hardwork and tenacity. So much efforts put together got the African giant to where he is today.
Burna Boy’s road to stardom was possible because he combined talent with hard work.
Today he is the only Nigerian artist with back-to-back nominations at the Grammys.
The Nigerian Singer, songwriter and record producer was born in 1991 with the name; Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu but is professionally recognized as Burna Boy.
His rise to stardom began in 2012 after he released the song ‘Like to Party’ which was the lead single from his debut studio album L.I.F.E.
Burna Boy signed with Bad Habit/Atlantic Records in the United States and Warner Music Group internationally in 2017.
In 2018, Burna Boy was featured on American rock band Fall Out Boy’s song, “Sunshine Riptide”, a track from their seventh studio album, Mania. He released his third studio album, Outside, exactly a week later, that same 2018.
In 2019, he won Best International Act at the 2019 BET Awards and was announced as an Apple Music Up Next artist.
In July of 2019, African Giant, which is his fourth studio album was released and it won Album of the Year at 2019 All Africa Music Awards and was also nominated for a Best World Music Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
Burma Boy won the 2020 African Artist of the year award at the 2020 VGMA.
Also, in August 2020, he released his fifth studio album, ‘Twice as Tall’, and it was nominated for the same category at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, making him the first Nigerian artist with back-to-back nominations at the Grammys.
He won best international Act at the BET Awards In 2021, while his “Twice as Tall” album won Best World Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy awards.
In July 2022, Burna Boy released his sixth studio album, Love, Damini which also became the highest debut of an African album on Billboard 200, as well as charts in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and France.
– Black Sheriff
Ghanaian singer and rapper, Mohammed Ismail, popularly known as Black Sheriff is one African Artist that has come to the limelight and is loved by many across the board.
He is described as a renaissance multi-genre artist that has gained international stardom.
Sheriff’s music is a meshing of hip-hop, UK drill, reggae and his native highlife.
Though he may be young, his music is fast spreading across the globe.
The 23 years old Ghanaian artist only began recording his music just three years ago.
He gained popularity in 2021 with his song “First Sermon” in May 2021.
His breakthrough came in with his March 2022 single “Kwaku the Traveller”, which reached number 1 on the Ghanaian and Nigerian Apple Music charts.
His first debut album ‘Vallian I never was’ was released last October.
During the Afronation concert in Accra last December, Black Sherif was awarded a plaque by the Audiomack music streaming platform for surpassing the 100 million streams benchmark on the platform.
In conclusion, one could see that the trio, Wizkid, Burna Boy and Black Sheriff are at the top of their careers as they are attracting international awards amongst others. To remain relevant in their chosen endeavour, they need to stay focused as they remain steadfast and striving to give the best at all times, as this will help them to remain at the peak of their game for a very long time to come.
The Secret of Wizkid, Burna Boy and Black Sheriff’s Stardom
