Grammy award-winning Nigerian singer, Ayo Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, has won the Artist of the Year award for African region in the Apple Music Awards 2021.
This announcement was made by Apple via its official website on Tuesday, as Wizkid emerged as one of the five artists to emerge as ‘Artist of the Year’ from various regions.
Listing Wizkid’s achievement on the music company, Apple said, “In October 2020, he released Made in Lagos, his critically acclaimed and most commercially successful album, which included his hit song “Essence,” a track that gained 125 million plays on Apple Music and over 2.8 million Shazams.
“This past year, he’s been the most streamed African artist on the continent on Apple Music and ranked on the Daily Top 100 charts in 60 countries, in addition to his monthly plays on Apple Music growing by more than 250 percent outside of Africa.
“He’s also been featured on Apple Music’s Today’s Hits and R&B Now playlists, and he’s a frequent guest on Apple Music Radio shows.”
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On receiving the award, Wizkid said, “Thank you to Apple Music for this award. It’s a blessing to get to do what I do, and I’m proud to be representing Africa.”
Other winners of the Artist of the Year award in different regions include Aya Nakamura (France), RIN (Germany), Official Hige Dandism (Japan), Scriptonite (Russia), while The Weeknd won Global Artist of the Year.