Is Wizkid Losing Momentum?

When in November of 2024, Wizkid released his sixth studio album Morayo, after a longwinded rollout effort that found him chronically online—an inversion of his characteristic reticence—the 34-year-old singer appeared poised to put behind him the woes of his poorly received fifth album, More Love Less Ego. In its opening weeks, Morayo earned feverish commercial and critical acclaim. The album, which corals the many different styles he has espoused over the years, united the disparate arms of his fanbase. The result was a level of excitement—especially in Nigeria where he broke an inordinate amount of records—that seemed to mirror the luster of his early days. A week after the release of the album, he consolidated his position atop Turntable’s Official Artist Top 10 chart with a staggering 1235.53 pts. He earned the record for the top 8 biggest first-day streams for singles, as the album’s tracks garnered immense numbers. It also earned the record for the biggest opening week on Spotify Nigeria, a record it still holds. 

In the past few months, however, his air of invincibility has dissipated. The album’s momentum has steeply tapered and the artist has looked increasingly adrift. He currently sits at number 12 on Turntable’s Official Artist Top 10 chart with a measly 118.11pts. For context, this represents a 90.44 percent slump from his previous high in November of 2024. Asake, who currently tops the chart, last dropped an album in August of 2024. Turntable’s Official Streaming Songs chart tells an even more ominous tale. Wizkid’s highest charting song on the chart is Kese, which sits at 36, the next closest song from the album is the Asake-assisted Bad-Girl, which is at number 57 on the chart. The album, however, continues to garner approximately a million daily streams on Spotify, proving he still has a dedicated listener base outside of Nigeria. 

But even his influence on the international stage has started to wane. On the 7th of May, news of the cancellation of several dates of his Morayo tour spread through social media. His fans have since taken to social media to express their incredulity at his apparent decline. Rival fanbases, however, have seized the news as an opportunity to wickedly taunt the artist and his roving army of fans. On X, the word “Wizkid” has found new meaning as an alternative to the verb “cancel.” In one meme that is rapidly gaining traction, he’s dressed in academic garb and addressed as the “Vice-Cancellor of Afrobeats.” Another hilarious tweet reads “Even when I switched from pencil to biro in primary 3 I swear I no cancel reach Wizkid. My personal favorite is a quote tweet. Responding to a tweet that says “My class got cancelled,” X user, crazy_fingersss, asks “Is Wizkid your lecturer?” 

While the flurry of hilarious comments that have followed has provided much amusement, they also conceal the seriousness of the situation. Wizkid, who sold out the O2 Arena three times over in 2021—setting the record for the fastest African artist to sell out the esteemed venue in just 12 minutes—had to cancel a show at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, as well as two other venues, on account of low ticket sales. Several commentators have been quick to pin these cancellations as a result of the economic headwinds facing economies across the world. Fraught economic conditions, as well as increasing uncertainty about the future, these commentators argue, have left people across the world with lesser disposable income, culminating in low ticket sales for artists like Wizkid. Others like music journalist Joey Akan have called it an “indicator of a cultural recession.”

These diagnoses, however, fall apart when one considers that two weeks ago, Rema performed at his sold out concert at the 20,000 capacity Madison Square Garden in New York. Likewise, Burnaboy performed at the 80,000 capacity Stade de France about a month ago. Countless Nigerian acts are still selling out venerable venues across the world. Wizkid’s inability to sell out these venues says more about his current loss of momentum than anything else. 

Putting aside quantitative metrics, Wizkid’s trajectory is still concerning as the artist has often appeared clueless, seemingly playing to an obsolete playbook. While his roll-out strategy (if we can call it that)—which primarily involved capturing the public’s attention through an ill-fated attack on Davido as well as a barrage of barely coherent tweets, such as when he derided Don Jazzy for being an influencer—created veritable anticipation for the album, he appears at a loss for how to sustain excitement around the album. Kese, which was released a week before the album dropped, was an instant hit and soon became a soundtrack to Detty December. Despite the song’s momentum in December, it took Wizkid until the 6th of March, when the excitement around the song had tapered before he released the video to the song. 

Wizkid has barely done any interviews since he dropped the album or made any prominent attempts at generating conversations around the album. This is almost unheard of from a pop star of his caliber. Even artists like Drake who are famously averse to traditional media have found a home with alternative media outlets such as streamers and podcasters. Drake has also mastered the art of generating conversations through carefully executed stunts such as in 2022 when he teased his project with 21 Savage through a fake SNL performance. 

All this makes one wonder what exactly his management is doing to steer his career in the right direction. Morayo is undoubtedly a great album. But in today’s hyper-saturated media landscape, resting on your laurels and allowing the music to “do the talking” is a recipe for disaster. Times have changed and to remain relevant, one has to acclimate oneself to the calculus of our current zeitgeist. 

Wizkid is managed by two stalwarts: Jada Pollock, his partner and mother of three of his children, who has managed artists like Chris Brown and Skyla Tylaa; and Sunday Are, a legend who has worked with an interminable list of luminaries—Majek Fashek, Don Jazzy, D’banj, Asa, Lagbaja, Onyeka Onwenu, Wande Coal, King Sunny Ade, to name a few. Despite their impressive credentials and track record of excellence, they both look creatively exhausted. In a 2020 interview with THE NATIVE, Are revealed that he had told Wizkid that he was tired and ready to retire. Wizkid however shut down the idea promptly. “…but he said ‘No, baba, I’m here. You’ve not started, you’re just starting now.’ Pollock has also looked rusty recently, a shadow of the 2020/2021 version of her that contributed immensely to Wizkid’s historic success in that period. 

In addition to being resonant, projects, in this age, typically require an obscene level of media saturation to be commercially successful. Consider Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal. Her level of media presence—through late-night show appearances, magazine covers, social media content, and billboard posters—was so intense that it appeared as though there was a universal conspiracy to vault her to the zenith of public consciousness. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie similarly delivered a masterful rollout for her recently-released fourth novel, Dream Count. Charlie XCX Brat similarly dominated the media sphere with a ferocity that bordered on suffocating. One can also make a similar case for Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter—which was styled as a reclamation of Black Culture—and Rema’s Heis. 

Despite his embattled situation, writing Wizkid off is a bit premature, he still has a huge fanbase and the talent to command rave reviews from critics. He and his team, however, must understand that success in today’s media landscape requires embedding oneself within the zeitgeist. This takes an insane amount of effort and intentionality. The question then is: does Wizkid’s seemingly exasperated team have enough fuel in their tanks to salvage this situation? But more importantly, how badly does Wizkid, who has been at the forefront of Afrobeats for more than a decade, want to keep his position?