(BIOGRAPHY) All about Wizkid and His Awards

Famous Nigerian singer and songwriter Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun has an interesting life story. What? His name doesn’t ring a bell to you? Well, most people know him by the stage name Wizkid or WizKid. Some refer to him as Lil Prinz. We bet you know the person we are talking about! Today we will discuss Wizkid biography and awards, and some other interesting facts so keep reading!

Wizkid Biography - Interesting information

We were surprised to find out that Wizkid had shared some information with his fans. As we all know, famous Nigerian people don’t like to talk about their past or private life. We can't blame them - we all want to have some information just to ourselves. However, there is not much to hide about Wizkid's biography, so maybe that's why he didn't mind sharing it with his loyal fans! Anyway, let's get into that biography.

The beginning of Wizkid

His real name is Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun and we think that you know it by now. Ayodeji was born in Surulere, on 16 July 1990. He wasn’t the only child in his family - he had twelve siblings. Interesting fact - all of his siblings were girls. Can you imagine that? That's a lot of sisters for one boy!

He grew up in a family where parents had different religious beliefs. In fact, his father still practices Islam, and his mother is a Christian (a Pentecostal Christian to be exact).

There is not much information about his childhood, up until the age of eleven. At that time he started singing, and he was quite good at it. In fact, he was so good that he even began to perform a little. He had an unusual stage name and a lot of people who were around the age of 15-16 at that time, remember him as Lil Prinz.

Can you imagine starting a career in such a young age? We wonder how his parents reacted to it. A lot of us dreamed about creating a music band when we were teenagers. But Lil Prinz did that in real life. Fascinating.

We know that at the beginning of his career (we are talking about the pre-teen and teen years) he started a group with some of his church friends. It was called “the Glorious Five.” They even released an album! However, the group didn’t last very long and eventually, Wizkid had to find a producer.

The “Superstar” era (2010-2011)

After the fall of the group, Wizkid met OJB Jezreel (record producer) and started to work with him. The year was not quite successful. In fact, they didn’t record at all. And nobody knows why.

We know that in 2009, Wizkid had a record deal with Banky W.'s Empire Mates Entertainment. 2009 was also the year when Wizkid started to work on his debut album “Superstar.” And then his career started! In 2010 he released his first lead single - “Holla at Your Boy.” He was only 20 at the time.

A few months later, Wizkid released a new song called “Tease Me/Bad Guys” which was also the album's next (second) single. The third single, “Don’t Dull” was released at the end of the year.

His first official album “Superstar” was recorded in Yoruba and English. It had elements of reggae, R&B, and dancehall. It became quite popular among young people. While working on the album, Wizkid collaborated with different music producers such as:

- Shizzi;

- E-Kelly;

- DJ Klem;

- Samklef;

- Masterkraft;

- Jay Sleek;

- Q-Beats;

There were also many guests featured on the album including Wande Coal, Skales, and D’Prince.

Wizkid and the era of Ayo (2012-2014)

2012 started with a great deal for Wizkid - he signed a deal with a well-known company “Pepsi” that was worth 350,000 U.S. dollars at that time. He had a commercial shoot in Beirut with Tiwa Savage. He also had a deal with MTN Nigeria that lasted for a year. However, in 2015 he left MTN and signed a deal with GLO that was worth N128 million.

His second studio album was called Ayo, which was initially titled “Chosen.” The work lasted for two years - from 2012 until 2014. The lead single of Ayo was “Jaiye Jaiye” with Femi Kuti. When Wizkid was asked about what fans should expect from Ayo, he said: “They should expect something magical”. The second single was “On Top Your Matter.”

Wizkid 2015-2017

Starting from the beginning of 2015, Wizkid worked on a new music video for the song “Ojuelegba.” In a couple of months, Wizkid released two songs - “African Bad Girl” in collaboration with Chris Brown and “Expensive Sh*t”. Last year he announced that he is working on a new album and his song “African Bad Girl” would be its lead single.

You may be wondering:

'How many awards has Wizkid won?'

What do you think? During his extraordinary life, Wizkid was nominated 157 times from which he got 44 awards. Let’s start with the first awards and then we will just sum up all of them.

- His first single “Holla at Your Boy” was nominated for the Best Pop Single and even won the Next Rated award at the Headies 2011.

- The video for the song “Holla at Your Boy” was nominated in 2011 at the Channel O Music Video Awards as the Most Gifted Newcomer Video. The video was also nominated for the Best Afro Pop Video in 2011.

- Wizkid’s first album, “Superstar,” won the Best Album award at the 2012 Nigeria Entertainment Awards.

Now, it is time to sum up all his awards:

- two MOBO Award;

- two Ghana Music Awards

- three Billboard Music Awards;

- one African Pride Award;

- four MTV Africa Music Awards;

- six Nigeria Entertainment Awards;

- one MTV Europe Music Awards;

- two Dynamix All Youth Awards

- two BET Award;

- six The Headies Awards;

- two City People Entertainment Awards

- two iHeartRadio Music Awards;

- two Channel O Music Video Awards;

- a Future Award;

- two SoundCity MVP Awards;

Facts that you should know about Wizkid

Wizkid is quite an extraordinary personality, so it is no wonder that his fans are always looking for new facts about him. We gathered some interesting facts about Wizkid and his life:

1. He once mentioned that his father has three wives. No wonder he had 12 sisters! But, to be honest, there is no information about whether the sisters were from his mother or not.

2. When Wizkid was just starting his career, he was listening to some iconic singers - Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, and King Sunny Ade. Maybe he got some inspiration from them.

3. Wizkid was at the studio when Sound Sultan’s album Jagbajantis was recording.

4. Wizkid parents were against his music. He had to work very hard in order to show them that he is worth it. Wizkid was around 15 at that time. But we are sure that they are proud of him now.

5. He attended Lagos State University, but he decided to leave it in order to focus on music. A brave step, but nobody will blame him. That turned out well, if you ask us.

6. While visiting The Beat 99.9 FM studio in Lagos, Wizkid noted that he was in collaboration with Rihanna.

7. Wizkid tried to attend University again, and this time it was the Lead City University, but he dropped out again.

8. Wizkid was once nominated at the Grammy Awards. Nominated did not mean that he got the award but being nominated at the Grammy Awards is not something that happens to every artist!

9. Wondering how old is Wizkid? He is only 27 years old. Still young and has a lot of time to create more great music!

10. There were a lot of rumors about Wizkid and his child. In 2011 he denied having a child. A lot of scandals were reported in that year, but in 2013 he posted a picture of his son who is two years old. Apparently, the rumours, which Wizkid denied, were true.

11. We don’t want to spoil the “top 10 facts about Wizkid, ” but we just have to say this last fact - the new, fourth Wizkid’s album would be titled “Sounds from the Other Side”. We wonder if it will be as popular as his first album?

There you have it - the biography of one of the most famous young Nigerian singers. The biography of Wizkid! His career started when he was at a very young age - he was only 11.

During his spectacular career, he had won numerous awards. We hope that he will continue to cheer us up with his songs. Wizkid is a talented young man who deserves all the attention, fame, and wealth he is getting right now.