Multi-award-winning Yoruba singer-songwriter Kizz Daniel has become one of Nigeria’s biggest musical exports. His debut album, 2016’s New Era, was named Album of the Year the country’s Headies Awards and crashed into the top ten of the US Billboard World Album Charts. It also spawned the hit single ‘Woju’. Daniel also has an army of fans across other social media platforms, with 14 million followers and subscribers across YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. His most recent releases have proved some of his most successful, with the likes of 2022’s ‘Cough (Odo)’ being streamed more than 14 million times in less than three months.
Daniel (who performed under the name Kiss Daniel until 2018) launched his musical career in 2014 with the original release of ‘Woju’. At the time, he’d just graduated with a degree in Water Engineering, but music won out, and in 2015, he was named as the Best New Act to Watch at the Nigerian Entertainment Awards. His debut album the following year saw him break through both at home — he won six awards from various major ceremonies in Nigeria in 2016 — and abroad.
In late 2017, Daniel launched his own record label, FLYBOY I.N.C. and his subsequent albums — 2018’s No Bad Songz and 2021’s Barnabas — have been released through it. Among his most popular tracks to date are 2018’s ‘Necessari’ (135 million Spotify and YouTube streams) and 2022’s Buga (150 million). The latter also went viral on TikTok — even Liberian president and former football star George Weah posted a video of himself dancing to it!