Wizkid

Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun grew up in Ojuelegba, a suburb of Surulere, Lagos, recording music at 11 with a church group called the Glorious Five. He signed with Banky W's Empire Mates Entertainment in 2009 and broke through with "Holla at Your Boy" from his 2011 debut Superstar. After his self-titled 2014 album Ayo and leaving E.M.E., the 2016 Drake feature "One Dance" hit number one in fifteen countries and rewrote what Afrobeats could reach. A 2017 RCA deal followed, then a Grammy in 2019 for "Brown Skin Girl" with Beyoncé. His 2020 album Made in Lagos carried "Essence", which cracked the Hot 100 and climbed higher with a Justin Bieber remix. More Love, Less Ego arrived in 2022, and two years later Morayo - named for his late mother - set a new continent-wide streaming mark the day it dropped.