How 'Essence' By Wizkid Became A Global Hit - Editorial

Forum 2 years ago

How 'Essence' By Wizkid Became A Global Hit - Editorial

Following the success of Wizkid's 'Essence' featuring Tems, we are looking into the strategies used by Wizkid and RCA records to turn the record into a global hit song.

Recall that the RCA/Sony Music recording artiste, Wizkid who launched his own imprint, Starboy Entertainment in March 2013 dropped his second studio album under a major label. “Made in Lagos” album by Ayo "Wizkid" Balogun is a 14-track album featuring Damian Marley, Ella Mai, Terri, Tems, Burna Boy, H.E.R, Tay Iwar, and Projexx. It is a well-crafted body of work. Listening to the tracks on this album gave me goosebumps, made me remember the Afrobeat of the 2000s when 2Baba, Faze and the rest dominated the Nigerian music space with cool and slow-paced jams.

Of all the 14-sogs on the Made in Lagos album, Essence is the only one to penetrate the US market and become a global hit song.

1. Influencer Marketing

This played a key role in the success of 'Essence'. The RCA data analysis and/or A/R team must have detected 'Essence; to be the song with a great potential for the USA market - a market Wizkid has been unable to penetrate as a lead singer. They reached out to popular influencers on Instagram, paid them, and get them to vibe to the song which made the news week in week out, and gave the song a long of numbers on shazam as people continue to discover the song.

Yes! Wizkid is big but there are some playlists he can't get into without some numbers. These numbers were made available by the results from the Influencer marketing making it easy for the DSP relations team to reach these DSPs for more editorial support. It is quite easy to get an editor to playlist your song when you have data backing you up. Take for example, when Wizkid's 'Essence' is leading the shazam charts in New York City, you know it won't be difficult to convince the editors to give you top playlists buzzing in New York and its neighboring cities.

3. Collaboration

The next step they took was the Justin Beiber remix. This also was meant to cement the cross-over in the US market. This further made it easier for the song to keep climbing the billboard chart, getting discovered by more people as it received even more support from DSPs and radio stations.

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