WIZKID CELEBRATES 10 YEARS OF HIS DEBUT ALBUM “SUPERSTAR” WITH A DOCUSERIES “A SUPERSTAR MADE IN LAGOS”
The Ojuelegba superstar Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun popularly known as Wizkid, Wizzy, Starboy and now Big Wiz is a Grammy award-winning Nigerian singer who has been making waves in the industry. After spending over 10 years in the Nigerian music industry, Wizkid started a docuseries “A superstar made in Lagos” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his debut album “Superstar”.
The docuseries centres around Wizkid’s journey in the Nigerian music industry. The series highlights his life, his music career and the impact he has made in the industry.
He started the documentary with a story about his background, clearly stating that Lagos defines him and the only religion he understands is love. Wizkid was born on July 16, 1990, in Surulere, Lagos. His father is a Muslim and his mother a Christian, hence the reason he believes “The biggest religion in life is LOVE”. In his words:
“Lagos is what defines me. Everything that I am today is stuff I learnt from that side. My house was like a funhouse. Growing up in a very spiritual home in Lagos really opened my mind. My dad is a Muslim, my mum is a Christian. I used to go to the mosque with my dad and church with my mum. That really opened my mind to the fact that the biggest religion in life is LOVE. That is the religion that I worship, follow and preach.”
Wizkid has three children with three different women. He had his first son, Boluwatife Balogun with Oluwanisola Ogudu in 2011, when he was just 21 years old. He had his second son, Ayodeji with Binta Diallo, a Guinea-American model in 2016. Not long after this, he had his third son, Zion Balogun with his manager, Jada Pollock. According to Wizkid, his family is everything.
“The most important thing to me is family. My son is like my best friend. He calls me every day. He is nine and we have the craziest conversations. It’s just important for me to keep family together and that’s what my parents instilled in us. There is nothing more important than family. Fatherhood means everything. I used to see myself like ‘oh, I’m Wizkid, a musician but when I have kids, I’m a father before anything else’. I will put everything on hold for my kids. I will stop the world if I can for my kids. That’s the kind type of father I am”.
Wizkid also went on to explain his experience with Banky W and his record label, Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E), and how much it meant to his career in “A superstar made in Lagos”.
“Me getting signed by Banky was one of the most amazing things that ever happened to me. It was just an amazing moment for me, man. It changed my life. And I wanna thank Banky for understanding the vision and taking me under his wings like his little brother.”
The Ojuelegba superstar stated that he puts everything into his music and would not release any song if he didn’t think it was good enough.
“From my first album I’ve always wanted to tell people that listen, ‘I make different types of sound’. If you listen to my first album, it’s got ‘Joy’ in it, it’s got ‘don’t dull’ which is a Naija song. It’s got ‘Tease me’ which is dancehall and we have ‘Pakuromo’ which is like a local song. To me, every time I make an album, I always try to bring a little piece of everything that I can make as a musician inside. That’s why when I go into a studio, I always try to keep thinking and keep evolving as a musician.”
Wizkid also recently changed his Instagram handle from the signature name ‘Wizkid’ to Big wiz, as requested by his fans. But here is what Wizkid has to say about his name.
“I don’t see Wizkid as a musician, Wizkid is a brand. When you’re talking about Wizkid, you’re talking about waves, you’re talking about Lagos, Surulere, Africa. I don’t joke with my name because it’s my brand.”
The docuseries, “A superstar made in Lagos” also features other individuals that have either impacted Wizkid’s career one way or the other or have been impacted by the talented singer. One of such people is Banky W, A Nigerian musician and entrepreneur who discovered Wizkid at an early age and signed him at age 19 in 2019 to his record label E.M.E. Here is a snippet from his session:
“He would just go to any studio where they would let him hang out. He would hang out all day and just wait, and hope and pray, for the engineers or producers to take pity at me and say ‘come and record for 15/30 minutes’ cause obviously he couldn’t pay for his [own] sessions. All day long he would be working on hooks, melodies, and just coming up with things, in case he was given an opportunity to jump on the mic for a few minutes… For me, I think, that’s where the name ‘wiz’ comes from and why it’s so appropriate… and obviously the ‘kid’ cause he was very small in stature but big in heart”
Ten years after his debut album, the Nigerian artist, Wizkid is now known internationally with the Grammy award, BET awards, Gold certificate and other awards in the bag. He has worked with the likes of Beyonce, Chris Brown, Drake and Skepta among many others. He also recently got a thumbs up from the famous Alicia Keys.
The album ‘Superstar’ which was released in 2011, according to some fans is one of Wizkid’s best album. Of course, it’s been ten years since the release of the album and Wizkid has evolved and achieved a great deal. His recent album ‘Made in Lagos’ keeps recording positive feedback with the hit singles “Ginger” ft Burna Boy and “Essence” ft Tems having good positions on the music chart.
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