Renowned singer Peter Okoye has revealed that he foresaw Wizkid’s meteoric rise to prominence in the music industry years ago.
Speaking on DW’s ‘The 77 Podcast’ latest episode with his brother Paul, Peter recounted the role he played during the Grammy-award-winning superstar’s early career.
Peter shared that he never underestimated Wizkid during his early days and always held high hopes for him. He mentioned that he had criticised journalists who dismissed Wizkid as an up-and-coming artist, confidently stating that Wizkid would eventually take over the industry.
In his words, “We [P-Square] were never the type of artistes that looked down on anybody. If you remember, there was a video that went viral where it was P-Square concert and Wizkid was opening for us. So, they [reporters] kept on interviewing only P-Square and we were like, okay, guys, hold on. What about him? They said… I said no, this guy is going to take over tomorrow.”
Also on the same podcast, speaking on their impact on the game, Paul said, “Don’t forget who dominated the [music] industry for a long time. We [PSquare] held it down for nearly 13,14 years. We were there. Up there. In fact, we started doing traveling around the world, doing the stadiums, doing everything. People fainting, people crying. Signing multimillion dollars deals.”
Wizkid has emerged as one of the biggest stars in Nigeria and, by extension, Africa. With many accolades under his belt, he currently sits as the top-streamed African artist on Spotify, amassing a staggering four billion streams. Notably, his hit song ‘Essence’, featuring Tems, has also earned the distinction of being the longest-charting Nigerian song on the prestigious US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
