Wizkid’s song Essence has earned a spot on the Billboard hot 100, a milestone that is for the record books.
The song has debuted at #82 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it the first ever Nigerian song to feature on the chart, Tems’ debut on the chart and Wizkid’s second appearance on the chart. The Nigerian heavyweight first cracked the Hot 100 in 2016 after his Drake collaboration, One Dance, peaked to #1 on the revered chart.
The song, a cut from his album dubbed Made in Lagos, is the 4th single off of the album and has been famously regarded the song of the summer 2021, with celebrities and regular folk alike obsessing over it the world over. The song features Tems, a fast-rising Nigerian songstress and Wizkid’s labelmate and whose career trajectory has just catapulted to the skies thanks to the the success of the song. Prior to this, the song made it to former U.S president Barack Obama’s annual Best Songs of the Year – no mean feat! The 14-track album has guest appearances from other music meteors like Burna Boy, Ella Mai and Damian Marley.
The Made in Lagos dropped album in October 2020 and has had quite the mega run. It was hailed by British Vogue in its Best Albums of 2020 list, made it to the Guardian’s UK’s Top 50 Albums of 2020, and appeared at #150 on the U.S Top 200 Apple Music List.
