“Essence” was not the lead single from Wizkid’s Made in Lagos. Nearly a year after the album came out, it became the first Nigerian song ever to reach the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100.
The song peaked at number 9 in 2021, helped by a remix with Justin Bieber. It also made history on Billboard’s R&B and hip-hop radio charts and ended the year as one of the defining songs of the Afrobeats wave in America.
Made in Lagos
Wizkid released Made in Lagos on 30 October 2020, after several delays. The album arrived in the middle of the #EndSARS protests against police brutality in Nigeria, and Wizkid had spoken publicly in support of the protesters. It was a smooth, mid-tempo record, full of guests: Burna Boy, Damian Marley, Skepta, H.E.R., Ella Mai and others. “Essence”, featuring Tems, sat near the middle of the tracklist.
It was the song listeners kept returning to. Its slow, rolling groove, produced by P2J and Legendury Beatz, and the back-and-forth between Wizkid and Tems made it a favourite in clubs, cars and on social media across Africa and the diaspora through early 2021.
The slow climb in America
What happened next was unusual. Without a big label push at first, “Essence” began to spread in the United States through radio, DJs and TikTok. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 in 2021, one of the few Nigerian songs to do so at that point, and kept climbing as more stations added it.
On 13 August 2021 the remix with Justin Bieber was released. Bieber added a verse and his audience followed. The combination of the original’s organic growth and Bieber’s reach pushed “Essence” into the top ten, and it peaked at number 9.
Records and recognition
“Essence” also reached the top ten of Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, a first for a Nigerian song. It received Grammy nominations, including for Best Global Music Performance, and was named one of the best songs of 2021 by a number of international publications.
For Tems, it was the breakout. American audiences who met her through “Essence” soon heard her again on Drake’s “Fountains” and Future’s “Wait for U”, which went on to win a Grammy.
The wider moment
“Essence” came during a run when Nigerian music broke through in America in a way it had not before. Burna Boy had won a Grammy months earlier. CKay’s “Love Nwantiti” was spreading on TikTok. A year later, Rema’s “Calm Down” would go even higher. “Essence” showed that a Nigerian song could get to the top of the American charts without changing its sound.
The song on the chart in 2021 was the same song Nigerians had been playing since October 2020. America just took longer to hear it.
