Last night Nigerian music Twitter exploded into another episode of ‘Weeknd stole Wizkid’s Starboy name’. And my first thoughts were: ‘Aren’t we done with this’?
This issue cropped up again because Wizkid announced a new song with Drake, via Twitter, and The Weeknd also tweeted the name, and announced the release date of his next full-length project titled “Starboy”. The album will be made ava ilable globally on November 25, 2016.
Come on, it’s just a name. Wizkid can find another one. He found Starboy, didn’t he? It won’t bring on the end of life, if he searches for another name to represent his brand.
How long will Nigerians continue to agonise over Wizkid’s branding, and give themselves sleepless arguments over a man who is clearly enjoying his life and chasing new frontiers? Wizkid himself is failing to move on, although he does it subtly with hints dropped which betray the fact the he is yet to move on.
While we accept that Wizkid was done badly by The Weeknd, we also need to put things in perspective, accept the fact that someone smoother, with a stronger plan and marketing campaign jumped on a name that Wizkid has failed to ‘own’ by copyrighting it for business, and also releasing records with that title for street credibility. The Weeknd is basing all of his comeback and redefinition on that name. He has an album, a single and a video out with that name. Nigerians need to move on from this saga, and by doing so, encourage Wizkid to focus on developing a stronger brand identity. When he does that, he needs to learn from this experience and properly brand himself with more than a name.
We can’t continue to hate on a successful US singer for stretching his hands and claiming what no one truly made theirs.
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