Grammy-winning Nigerian superstar, Wizkid’s hit song, ‘Essence’ which features fast-rising songstress, Tems, has become the most searched song on Shazam, an Apple-owned music search platform.
The feat was achieved on August 31.
Earlier on the aforementioned date, a Twitter account, operated by Shazam wrote that, “Big congrats to @wizkidayo!! #Essence is now the most Shazamed song in the United States.”
It placed the Nigerian afrobeats star above Ed Sheeran, Lil Nas X, Doja Cat and The Weeknd on the app’s list of Top 10 artists in the US, the latest sign of the African music genre’s increasing mainstream appeal.
The original song was first released in October 2020 as a track on Wizkid’s ‘Made in Lagos’ album. 10 months later, the album peaked at number one on the Billboard world albums chart, becoming only the second African album —after Burna Boy’s ‘Twice as Tall’ — to do so.
Between July and September, the original Essence or remix has topped Billboard’s world digital songs sales chart, topped Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, and reached a new peak of Number 13 on the Hot 100 this week – the highest-ever peak for a Nigerian artist’s song on the chart.
Both versions have over 54 million Spotify streams as well.
‘Essence’, which kept gathering momentum, caught the attention of American superstar rapper, DaBaby, who did a remake of the song. The rapper shot an official video for the two-minute freestyle which he posted on his YouTube channel.
Just last week, the Wizkid sold out a third date for his London Concert slated to hold at the 02 Arena after selling out the first (Dec. 28) and second (Dec. 29) in minutes.
The singer whose strides, alongside those of Burna Boy and Davido have continued to put the Afrobeats genre on the world stage, is being suggested by analysts to be named a global ambassador by the Nigerian government.
“By now, Nigeria should have made Wizkid global ambassador.
“The young man projects Nigeria more positively than all our embassies and high commissions put together.
“The world should be seeing Wizkid repping Nigeria on CNN and other global media, our stamps, airports and embassies,” Reno Omokri, a former presidential aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan opined.
