A Brief Walk Through The Timeline Of Wizkid

Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun the father of three, also known as Wizkid, was born on the 16th of July 1990. The last ten years of Wizkid’s life have been a dream come true for the artist and the dream of many other artists looking to make it in the music industry. We have all known Wizkid as the popular Nigerian singer and songwriter that has dropped records breaking albums, making him the number one Afro beats artist to make it to the Guinness World Records. 

But, how was life before then? Going back into the last 10 – 19 years of the then ‘Lil Prinz’ as he was called, what are we going to discover?

This article will tell you all you need to know about the life of one of the most popular, biggest and influential African artist of all time if you will just read on!!

Wizkid’s Early Life (2001 – 2008)

Growing up for Wizkid wasn’t as easy as a lot of people imagined it to be. In a radio interview with Tim Westwood, Wizkid stated that he grew up in a polygamous family that left him with 12 sisters and 2 stepmothers because his father married 3 wives. 

His inspiration for music came about when he was at the primary level of his education. He grew up listening to the likes of Fela Kuti, one of Nigeria’s, and Africa’s prominent political activists and Pan-Africanist who at that time was a popular singer as well. it is safe to state fact that Wizkid got a great part of his motivation from the Nigerian Icon.

Wizkid dropped his first Album in 2001 with a group of children from his church, a group that he created and named the ‘Glorious five’. At that time, he was called ‘Lil Prinz’ and the album consisted of 7 tracks.

This marked the beginning of his journey and at that time, there was no arguing the fact that he was going to become famous since it was clear; he had the talent and the willingness to let it shine!!

Wizkid later changed his name from ‘Lil Prinz’ to ‘Wizkid’ in 2006 after he met a new producer that prevented him from recording a new song for some time.

Wizkid’s Journey to Fame (2009 – 2013)

By 2009, Wizkid signed a record deal with Empire Mates Entertainment. This deal drew the stage curtains wide open for the spotlight to be on Wizkid. You can see that he grabbed hold of that opportunity as his life depended on it.

By 19, he co-wrote a song by Banky W titled “Omoge You Too Much”, which served as the beginning of his dealings with popular Nigerian artists. He also took his time to master the art of music, after he dropped out of school twice.

Having had close to enough experience at hand, he started working on his debut studio album titled, ‘Superstar’ in 2009. He dropped the lead single off the album titled ‘Holla at Your Boy’ and his life never remained the same!!

Immediately after the release of the lead single, it was nominated as the Best Pop Single, it also earned Wizkid the Next Rated Award at the Headies in 2011.

The Video of the lead single also earned him the Award of the Most Gifted New Comer Video in 2011 at Channel O Music Video Awards. Having realised how good his craft was, Wizkid went on to release ‘Superstar‘ on June 12th 2011.

Wizkid received a lot of awards for this album, but the greatest of all was the fame that came with it. He received both local and international recognition, which led him to tour London and perform at the HMV Apollo on 4th June 2012, as if that wasn’t enough, he went on to perform alongside Kendrick Lamar and others, in Brixton.

Wizkid’s Life After Fame (2014 – present)

Take a wild guess at what celebrities do after becoming famous. Ever since the release of the superstar album, Wizkid has been going on tour after tour, he is simply living the life of a superstar. I love the fact that he didn’t let his achievements so far make him lose focus. He was living the life and still making plans for a new album. 

In 2014, Wizkid dropped another album, titled ‘Ayo’, and another one again in 2017 titled ‘Sounds from the Other Side’. It was like he was on an album spree because he keeps dropping them back to back and all were great hits and breaking records.

As a tribute to Fela Kuti and his kind of music, Wizkid collaborated with Femi Kuti in releasing the lead single in his Ayo album and the song which is titled ‘Jaiye Jaiye’ became another hit song as he performed it in a yearly concert dedicated to Fela Kuti.

People thought they have seen all that Wizkid had to offer, not until he dropped the most famous album of all his carrier titled ‘Made in Lagos,’. This album has earned him, even more, awards and fame than he ever thought he would have. I guess we can all agree that Wizkid’s life is a perfect example of “from grass to grace”.

Wizkid’s Achievements 

Over the past years, Wizkid has managed to achieve great fame and awards and keeping track of them would have been a difficult thing to do if not for the internet. 

Seeing that Wizkid is not a man that loves to boast about his achievements, it would be hard to have him mention them even in an interview. Thank God the internet never forgets!! Click for a Full list of Wizkid’s Top Achievements. 

@ thebalogunboys

No matter how busy Wizkid is, he always makes time for his children, he has 3 kids and the internet bears witness that he loves them all dearly.

He can be seen a couple of times spending time with his children, a moment that has left a lot of fans emotional based on the joy on their faces.

@naijagisthub44

We can say that Wizkid got the opportunity to make history and he took it. And I believe, there is more for us to see from Wizkid as he recently dropped his 5th studio album titled ‘More Love, Less Ego’. This album is not getting much attention for now, but it is always magic with Wizkid and I believe, the best is yet to come from the 32-year-old Artist.