Afrobeats has made history once again thanks to the brilliance of Ayodeji Balogun popularly known as Wizkid. His song ‘Essence remix’ featuring Tems & Justin Bieber won “Best Collaboration” at the 2022 BET Awards to become the first African song to win in a major category at the BET Awards.
Riding the wave of Essence’s popularity and her most recent collaboration in Future and Drake’s ‘Wait For You’, Tems also picked up the Best International Artist Award making her the first Afrobeats artist to take home two BET Awards in one night.
Essence edged out the likes of ‘Way 2 Sexy’ by Drake ft Future and Young Thug, ‘Family Ties’ by Kendrick Lamar, ‘Kiss Me More’ by Doja cat ft SZA which were top-charting songs in the US.
“This award is for Wiz, Africa and I just want to say that great things are happening out of Africa right now and the light is on everyone there, this is dedicated to Africa and Nigeria,” Tems said in her acceptance speech.
Read also: Burnaboy’s “Last Last” track debuts No.1 on UK Afrobeats chart
Not long ago at the 64th annual Grammy award, ‘Essence’ which was the favourite to win Best Global Music Performance award lost to Arooj Aftab’s ‘Mohabbat’, sparking outrage on social media with Wizkid fans calling out the award academy.
Music experts both locally and globally expected ‘Essence’ to have been either nominated in a major category or to win in the category it got nominated, given the huge popularity of the song.
“The Grammys should be aware that Essence was the song of the year”, said former American rapper Joe Biden in an interview with Nicki Minaj.
Wizkid also got a significant nomination for Best Male RnB/Pop Artist with the likes of Chris Brown, Lucky Daye and Givēon. The Weeknd won in that category.
This will be Wizkid’s fourth BET win making him the most awarded African artist in BET’s History. The awards include Best International Act: Africa in 2012, Best International Act: Africa 2017, BET HER Award for “Brown Skin Girl” and Best Collaboration for Essence 2022.
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