On August 27, 2021, Wizkid gave “Made in Lagos” a second life. The deluxe edition arrived almost a year after the original album changed the trajectory of Afrobeats on the global stage, and five years later, its impact still shapes how the genre is packaged and sold to the world.
A much needed sequel to a legendary project
When “Made in Lagos” dropped in October 2020, it landed amid one of the most painful moments in recent Nigerian history. The EndSARS protests had just rocked the country, and the Lekki Tollgate tragedy left a wound that many were still processing. Into that heaviness came a 14-track body of work built on soft percussion, warm guitars, and Wizkid’s signature ad-libs. It felt like a breath of fresh air after all that noise.
Turns out the feeling was right. “Essence,” the Tems-assisted highlight, slowly climbed the US Billboard charts on the strength of pure, organic streaming numbers rather than a big marketing push. By the mid-2021, it had become one of the biggest African songs in America, and Wizkid had a Justin Bieber remix to prove it.
That momentum is what set up the deluxe. Rather than rush out a new album, Wizkid and his team chose to extend the story that was already working. The deluxe edition added four new records: “Steady,” “Anoti,” “Mood,” and the “Essence” remix with Bieber, bringing the tracklist to 18 songs and stretching the album’s total runtime past the hour mark.
It’s easy to underestimate how significant this move was then. Deluxe editions were not new in global pop and hip hop, but a Nigerian artist using the format to extend an album’s commercial and cultural life was still relatively rare. Wizkid essentially gave “Made in Lagos” two release cycles, two waves of press, and two chances to convert new listeners, all without diluting the coherence and connection of the original project.
The timing also mattered. The deluxe rollout came alongside expanded tour dates, including a second and third night added at London’s O2 Arena after the first sold out in twelve minutes, and new stops on Wizkid’s North American run. “Made in Lagos” was no longer just an album; it had become a full campaign, and it carried Wizkid’s global profile through an entire touring cycle.
The Bigger Picture, Five Years Later
Looking back now, the deluxe edition took “Made In Lagos” to a whole new level. It kept the project charting, kept the conversation going, and gave Wizkid room to go deep into an aspect of his variety bag again with a song like “Steady”, which we only ever saw him do similarly on Soundman Vol 1.
More importantly, it cemented the blueprint that a couple of Afrobeats acts have followed since: build an album slowly, let the singles breathe, then come back with a deluxe to capture the audience the original brought in. “Made in Lagos” and its deluxe extension remain arguably the clearest examples of an African album achieving genuine global crossover on its own terms, and five years on, its influence in Afrobeats’ history is still being widely talked about.