Two of Nigeria’s prolific and internationally acclaimed singers, Burna Boy and Ayo Whizkid Balogun have won their first-ever prestigious Grammies at the 63rd Grammy Award ceremony.
Nigerian superstar, Ayo Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, has won his first-ever Grammy Award for his role in ‘Brown Skin Girl’ off the 2019 album, ‘The Lion King’, at the 63rd Grammy Award.
He won the award alongside Beyonce, who owns the song and featured artists – Wizkid, Blue Ivy, and SAINt JHN
It also marks the first Grammy Award for Beyoncé’s daughter.
The award will go to Jenn Nkiru who directed the video while artists, producers and video director will get a statuette for this category.
The official Twitter account of Grammy tweeted, “Congrats Best Music Video winner – ‘BROWN SKIN GIRL’ @Beyonce #BlueIvy @wizkidayo”.
Beyoncé’s visual for “Brown Skin Girl” took home the award over videos by Future and Drake (“Life Is Good”), Harry Styles, (“Adore You”), Anderson Paak (“Lockdown”), and Woodkid (“Goliath”).
Wizkid has continued to excel on the global stage. His latest album, Made in Lagos, enjoyed rave reviews across the world, even as his fan base stretched to hitherto ‘unconquered’ territories.
Three of Wizkid’s songs, Borrowed Love, Soco and Can’t Believe were certified in Canada. Other songs, ‘Love’ and ‘Energy’ also earned certification in the United Kingdom; while Come Closer got certified Gold in the United States of America; and ‘Bella’ got certification in France.
Wizkid was the first Nigerian to win an NAACP Image award for the song, Brown Skin Girl, on which he was featured by Beyonce, in the category of ‘Outstanding Duo, Group/Collaboration’. He also became the most awarded African Artist in the history of the Music of Black Origin awards, having won four awards. He was adjudged the ‘Best African Act’ in the 2020 edition of the prestigious award.
He also became the most awarded Nigerian artiste at the BET Awards, having won three times. The singer was the first African artiste to be nominated at Brazil’s Breaktudo Awards in the ‘Global Artiste’ category.
Burna Boy, an African musical giant was nominated in the category for the Best Global Music Album category for his album Twice As Tall.
The singer, who is a nominee for a second consecutive year, beat four others including the Malian band, Tinariwen to clinch the award.
During his last outing at the Grammys, Burna Boy was nominated in the same category- then known as Best World Music Album – but lost to Angelique Kidjo at the awards ceremony in 2020.
However, Kidjo dedicated her win to him, saying: “Burna Boy is among those young artists that come from Africa that is changing the way our continent is perceived and the way that African music is the bedrock of all music.”
His album, Twice As Tall, becomes the first Nigerian album to win a Grammy.
