Nigeria’s Grammy Award winner Wizkid Aka Big Wiz sold out London’s 20,000 capacity O2 Arena in 12 minutes! leaving fans begging for more dates to be added. The Afrobeats star is the first African artist to do so and the 7th musician to have sold out the 02 Arena. The ‘Made In Lagos’ concert will be held in London in November.
This isn’t Wizkid’s first time selling out the 02 Arena. In October 2019, he sold out the 02 Arena with his “Starboy Fest” becoming the first African artist in history to do so.
Star Boy, commonly called, last month released dates and venues for his much-anticipated album ‘Made In Lagos.’ The ‘Made In Lagos’ album is a 14-track album that features another Nigerian Grammy Award winner Burnaboy, Tems, H.E.R, Damian Marley. The most talked-about song and the most played/streamed song from the album is ‘Essesnce’ featuring fast-rising female musician Tems.
The album is a huge commercial success with millions of streams in various streaming platforms. The success of ‘Made In Lagos’ made Wizkid the most streamed Nigerian musician of all time.
‘Essence’ is the hottest song in Africa at the moment. According to Billboard, “the hit also topped Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart and entered the Billboard Global 200, becoming the first song on the tally to contain vocals in Nigeria’s Yoruba dialect”. The song is also the first African song to reach the U.S. Apple Music Top 30 songs chart! The song is charting everywhere even in South Korea as it sits at No.22 on South Korea’s Spotify Viral 50.
“Essence” stays true to its title, capturing the feel of the entire album in one infectious track. The Nigerian superstar recruits emerging singer Tems, who opens the euphoric, hip-swaying song with an ascending verse (“I wanna leave you in the morning/ But I need you now”) and equally-to-the-point chorus (“You don’t need no other body”). Although the album was released in 2020, WizKid released “Essence” as a single in April, along with an accompanying music video — reviving the track just in time for the summer.”
Billboard
List of musicians that have sold out the 02 Arena in less than 15 minutes:
1.Spice Girls (2007, 38 seconds)
2.Monty python Live (2014, 43 seconds)
3.Gary Barlow (2014, 6 minutes)
4.The Rolling Stones (2012, 7 minutes)
5.Rihanna (2011, 10 minutes)
6.Beyonce (2004, 12 minutes)
7.Wizkid (2021, 12 minutes)
