Grammy-winning Nigerian artist, Ayodeji Balogun, famously known by his stage name Wizkid, has released his sixth studio album, “Morayo” in tribute to his late mother, Jane Balogun, who passed on in August 2023.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the much-anticipated 16-track album was release on streaming platforms on Friday.
The tracks include hit songs — Troubled Mind, Karamo, Kese (Dance), Bad Girl, Time, Piece of My Heart and Pray, with collaborations featuring renowned artistes such as Asake, Brent Faiyaz, Jazmine Sullivan, Anaïs and Tiakola.
Wizkid had earlier in June, in a video message shared on his social media page, told his fans that the album was to honour his late mother.
He said “my album ‘Morayo’, dedicated to my mum, the love of my life, drops very soon. Don’t dull. Don’t sleep.”
In another post on his X handle, he wrote: “Morayo! Friday, Nov. 22.”
However, the ace singer in October dropped a track “Piece of My Heart”, featuring American singer and songwriter,Brent Faiyaz, from the album for his curious fans.
The soul-stirring track immediately set a new record on Spotify for the biggest first day streams by any song, pulling 1.01 million streams.
Wizkid broke the record he previously shared with Asake for their chart-topping single “MMS” from Asake’s “Lungu Boy” album, making “Piece of My Heart” Africa’s first song to surpass one million opening day streams on Spotify.
NAN reports that Wizkid, born in Surulere, Lagos, started his music career at 11 and released a collaborative album with Glorious Five, a group formed with Church friends.
In 2009, he signed with Banky W’s Empire Mates Entertainment and became famous with “Holla at Your Boy”, and since then, evolved to become a global brand.
Among other feats, Wizkid became the first Nigerian musician to have over one million followers on Twitter (now X) in 2014.
He became first Afrobeat artist to appear in the 2018 Guinness World Records for his contribution to “One Dance” and his song “Soco” became his first Afrobeat single to be certified gold in Canada.
In mid-2019, Wizkid was featured on Beyonce’s “Brown Skin Girl”, taken from the acclaimed “The Lion King: The Gift” soundtrack, which earned him his first Grammy Award, among other nominations and awards.
Besides “Morayo”, his studio albums include Superstar (2011), Ayo(2014),Sounds from the Other Side(2017),Made in Lagos(2020) and More Love Less Hate(2022)