What next for Wizkid after Grammy loss?

BY EMMANUEL DARALOYE

On Sunday night, Burna Boy and Wizkid lost their various categories at the 2022 edition of the Grammys. 

Wizkid’s ‘Made in Lagos’ deluxe edition lost the ‘Best Global award category to Angélique Kidjo’s ‘Mother Nature’ album. He also lost the ‘Best Global performance’ category to Arooj Aftab, the Pakistani singer.

As expected, the loss has continued to generate mixed reactions from fans, music critics, and industry lovers. In 2021, ‘Essence’, a standout song off ‘Made in Lagos’ was unofficially tagged the song of the summer — in retrospect, it was.

The album broke into the Billboard Hot 100, became the soundtrack at public events, and was on the list of major music magazines’ end-of-the-year songs list.

Grammy award voting members know better as they have settled for Angélique Kidjo’s climate change pivoted album ‘Mother Nature’. The deed has been done, where does Wizkid go from here, what does he need to do if he wants to cart home the plaque?

Some ‘Over Sabi’ fans said Wizkid doesn’t need a Grammy or any awards. Artistes want awards, they crave awards, it has always been a form of validation for them. They bask in the euphoria of their victory. The Grammy is one of the biggest awards in the world. Wizkid needs it, if the feelers from his camp should be taken into consideration, they all anticipated his victory.

With months or weeks to the release of ‘More Love, Less Ego’, Wizkid and his management need to go back to the drawing board. In 2020, when Burna Boy lost the Grammy to Angélique Kidjo, he went back to the drawing board to draft an Afrocentric conscious album; met with the woman who helped him in crafting an album.

Burna Boy co-opted Grammy winner and music mogul P. Diddy as executive producer. The narrative being peddled by his publicists was very simple; here is a very conscious man, his grandfather managed Fela, he is set to bring Africans/African American Americans back to consciousness, his music also walked the talk. He was that conscious.

The voting members of the ‘Best Global’ category are still not aware of how modern African music works, they still believe the continent lives on one dollar per day — still, on point, they are ravaged by poverty, war, corruption, and famine.

These are some of Africa’s country realities. They don’t believe in posh cars, women, etc. While Burna Boy gives a small amount of this trope on ‘Twice As Tall’, he was more focused on issues Africans are grappling with.

2022 is another chance for Wizkid to go for the Grammy, the lapses of 2020/2021 must be avoided. His sparse interview should be brushed up. It should be more deliberate and narrative-driven. He should get a songwriter and expand his themes.

Grammy has always been political. Burna Boy understood this, I think with the right tweak and reorientation, Wizkid might one day bring home the award.

Emmanuel Daraloye is a music critic