Award-winning Nigerian singer, Wizkid, has been declared the winner of the Artist of the Year for the African region in the Apple Music Awards 2021.
The announcement was made by Apple on its website on Tuesday.
The Apple Music Awards is created to honour musicians under five different categories which are, Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Top Song of the Year, and Top Album of the Year.
Winners are chosen through a process that reflects both Apple Music’s editorial perspective and what customers around the world are listening to the most.
Apple in a statement on its website said, “In October 2020, he released Made in Lagos, his critically acclaimed and most commercially successful album, which included his hit song “Essence,” a track that gained 125 million plays on Apple Music and over 2.8 million Shazams.
“This past year, he’s been the most streamed African artist on the continent on Apple Music and ranked on the Daily Top 100 charts in 60 countries, in addition to his monthly plays on Apple Music growing by more than 250 per cent outside of Africa.
“He’s also been featured on Apple Music’s Today’s Hits and R&B Now playlists, and he’s a frequent guest on Apple Music Radio shows.”
Wizkid in his response to the award said, “Thank you to Apple Music for this award. It’s a blessing to get to do what I do, and I’m proud to be representing Africa.”
Other winners of the Artist of the Year award in different regions include Aya Nakamura (France), RIN (Germany), Official Hige Dandism (Japan), Scriptonite (Russia).
The Weeknd won Global Artist of the Year.
This is coming hours after Wizkid won the award for the best collaboration at the 2021 Soul Train Awards with his song featuring Tems, Essence.
The song which has been nominated in the 2021 Grammy Awards has received reviews all over the world.
The talented singer in the song which featured Tems clinched the Best Collaboration award at the Apollo Theatre in New York on Sunday night.
This article was originally published on Naija News