Wizkid Might Be The First Nigerian To Win A Grammy, By Hafeez Onitilo

I have tried hard not to dwell on this issue that has got social media buzzing for a while and that is the issue of this Drake song which he featured Wizkid. I am not going to go into why many Nigerians are disappointed in the song that they ignored how lovely the song itself sounds.

I am not here to disrespect anybody’s opinion because believe or not when I first heard the song I was very disappointed too but after taking a step back and listened to the song with the mind of someone that has always wanted growth for the Nigerian music industry I have come to realise that this feature is a step in the right direction and might just be the best thing to happen to our music industry and also to Wizkid himself.

Let me quickly say this to those people out there that are still upset with the way Wizkid sounded on this joint, Wizkid sounding like that on the song was exactly what the producers of the song needed from him, yes we all know Wizkid could have done better than that but again when producing a song a lot of things are considered and trust me the producers including Drake would have thought of the best possible way to utilise Wizkid's voice before they called him but again like I said I am not here to talk about how Wizkid sounded instead I am here to talk about the positive impact the song has and might still have.

I for one, I don't really get excited these days when Nigerian artistes feature/foreign artistes and pay heavily for them because I feel we have grown or should have grown to the point where foreign artistes should be willing to feature us on their songs. Yes I know it is a big step getting foreign/ artistes on a Nigerian song but really we have been doing that since the days 2Face did Nfana IBaga with Bennie Man which was like 10 years ago, so yes I stand on it that by now a song from Drake featuring Wizkid is what we should doing now whether him voice comot or not, whether him sing or not as much as his name appears on the track and also appear on the album then na very big step.

Enough has been said about how big our music industry has grown, now it is time we begin to see the effect of that big industry and getting featured by a foreign artistes is one of the ways to show that yes we have gone big. From what I heard (correct me if am wrong) Skepta played Ojuelegba for Drake, he liked it and jumped on it, now this only shows how much our sounds have evolve but the question is 'where do we go from here?, how do we expand on this?'

The only artistes that have featured a Nigerian artiste after working with them are T-Pain who feature 2face on a track called If I Gat It and Akon who featured D’banj on Feeling The N**** (correct me if I am wrong) now Wizkid has joined them, the most interesting thing about Wizkid was that when Drake did Ojuelegba he wasn't even in the studio with him, so for Drake to have decided to say you know what I need to put this guy on my next album then we all should celebrate that because whether we choose to accept or not Wizkid has done what probably no Nigerian artiste  has done, feature on a foreign artiste's album.  I used the word Probably because some of you might say what about D’Banj and the song he featured on, on the Good Music album so if we put that into count we probably say he would be the second Nigerian artiste to feature on a foreign/American artiste album.

One Dance which is the name of the song in question is doing really good in terms of charts across the globe and as this song keeps topping charts, credit is also being given to Wizkid and what many might not even know is the fact that this song is also the lead single of Drake’s new album Views From The 6, now tell me that isn’t something to cheer for. Talking about charts in the United States, the song reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and outside North America, the song topped the charts in the United Kingdom, where it became Drake's first chart-topping song as a lead artist and second overall, furthermore, One Dance became Wizkid first chart-topping song in the UK, now tell me this isn’t another thing to cheer for, which Nigerian based artiste has topped chart in the UK?

Now there is no doubt by the time this album drops it would be nominated for a Grammy and yes Wizkid won’t be the first Nigerian to be nominated for a Grammy but he might be the first to actually win it, that of course if this song gets nominated and wins.  

So fellow Nigerians I think we should be happy for Wizkid because whether we choose to believe or not this song has boosted his music career in a very big way and would also help the growth of our industry in the long run. Thank you

Now just to prove how far this song has taken Wizkid, here are charts across the globe and the performance of the song

Chart (2016)	Peak position
Australia (ARIA)	10
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)	11
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)	8
Belgium (Ultratip Wallonia)	12
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)	1
Czech Republic (Singles Digitál Top 100)	12
Denmark (Tracklisten)	7
France (SNEP)[	1
Germany (Official German Charts)	6
Hungary (Single Top 40)	24
Ireland (IRMA)	5
Italy (FIMI)	33
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)	25
Netherlands (Single Top 100)	1
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)	10
Norway (VG-lista)	15
Scotland (Official Charts Company)	4
Spain (PROMUSICAE)	11
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)	2
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)	3
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)	1
US Billboard Hot 100	3
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)	2