Afrobeats

WizKid Connects With Justin Bieber On “Essence” Remix: Listen

Wizkid and Justin Bieber have collaborated on “Essence (remix).”

No, you didn’t read that wrong. The “Joro” singer visited his Instagram to announce the news yesterday (August 12) writing, “Dat @justinbieber vocals. Love u my g!” Fans immediately went crazy upon the announcement of yet another remix by WizKid, following the “Eve Bounce” remix he did with Yung L, which generated over 1M views on YouTube.

Essence,” which features Tems, appears on WizKid’s album, Made in Logas. This is the fourth studio album from the talented Nigerian singer-songwriter.

“Thank u for letting me jump on the song of the summer. Essence remix out tonight,” Justin Bieber tweeted, sending his fans over the edge. The tweets had been testing the patience of both fandoms throughout the day, who couldn’t wait to hear the remix.

The slurry Nigerian, mixed with English lyrics, could’ve also played a part in Justin Bieber wanting a collab. The thirty-one-year-old can be heard throughout the song singing, “Yeah our love, no be lie. See yeah we dey together, yeah day and night. Yeah if I leave you go kpai.”

Justin complements the track perfectly, coming in at 1:50, smoothly and serenely singing out, “I prayed for this moment, I would be by your side / And I don’t wanna forget, Those lonely nights / Ooh, so tell that you gon’ ride with me Tell me that you’ll never lie to me (Mm-hmm).”

He also added his voice to the chorus, exciting fans further as they exclaimed, “Who knew a perfect song could be even better,” and “His voice is enough to make everything special.”

“Made in Lagos” destroyed several African streaming records within just a week of its release. The album also became the first from the African region to debut on the Spotify Global Album chart. The success of the song screamed greatness for the Afro-pop artist. Next stop, WizKid’s “Made in Lagos” tour starting next month.

To WizKid, whose real name is Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, this was just another one of his achievements throughout his career. Back in 2018, he became the first Afrobeats artist to appear in the Guinness World Records for his contribution to “One Dance.” He also won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video for his work while featuring on Beyoncé’s project The Lion King: The Gifton; the collaboration “Brown Skin Girl,” in 2019.

The remix so far has garnered over 524 thousand views in the 12 hours since its release, and it is currently number 49 on YouTube’s trending list.

Listen to it below.