Wizkid wants to be like Bob
AFROBEATS giant Wizkid is one of the genre’s brightest stars. In fact, the Nigerian’s song One Dance is listed in the Guinness World Records as the most streamed song on Spotify globally. But he wants more — “to live forever” like Bob Marley.
According to The Guardian, he is aspiring for “immortal” status after seeing Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical.
“I recently went to see Bob Marley musical, Get Up, Stand Up! I was like, ‘Yo, we’re watching a Bob Marley play and this guy died decades ago,’ ” he was quoted as saying.
“I didn’t even know that he died at 36. He did so much at a young age. It just reaffirms what I do; I have to keep taking this to the highest heights because I know one day they’re definitely going to create a play about me,” said the 32-year-old.
He said he wanted to live forever but not physically, but for whatever he created to live forever.
Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical is currently running at the Lyric Theatre in London until January 2023. It traces Marley’s story from rural Jamaica to gritty Trench Town and superstardom. The musical stars David Albury as Bob, Cleopatra Rey as Rita Marley, and Charles Blyth as Chris Blackwell.
Wizkid (given name Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun) is a prominent figure on the Afrobeats music scene today. He’s regarded by many as one of the biggest and most influential African artistes of all time.
In 2018 he was featured on the song Checklist by Normani and Calvin Harris, which reached number one on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart. The following year he was featured on Beyoncé’s project The Lion King: The Gift on the single Brown Skin Girl, which also reached number one on the World Digital Song Sales chart and won him a Grammy Award for Best Music Video. In October 2020 he released his fourth album, Made in Lagos, which received commercial success and acclaim, reaching number one on the Billboard World Album Chart. The album includes the single Essence, featuring Tems, which became the first Nigerian song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2017, Billboard reported that Wizkid signed a multi-album worldwide record deal with RCA Records, a subsidiary of Sony Music.
