A film built around one night in north London could put Wizkid back in the Grammy conversation. “Long Live Lagos,” the HBO documentary charting his rise from Lagos to global stardom, has been submitted for consideration in the Best Music Film category.
The news landed on October 14, 2026, which puts the documentary in the running for the 2027 ceremony. A submission isn’t a nomination, so the real test comes when the Recording Academy reveals its shortlist.
Filmmaker Karam Gill directed and produced the project for HBO Documentary Films. It runs 83 minutes and builds toward Wizkid’s headline show at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, a night many fans still point to as proof of how far Nigerian pop has travelled.
The film isn’t only a victory lap, though. Gill uses Wizkid’s story to look at the global spread of Afrobeats and how music has changed the way African identity is seen beyond the continent.
That wider lens shows up in who gets screen time. Femi Kuti, the Afrobeat veteran and son of Fela Kuti, appears alongside Jada Pollock, Wizkid’s longtime manager, and London broadcaster Julie Adenuga, plus a handful of other cultural voices.
Having Kuti in the mix matters for the film’s argument. It ties Wizkid’s era to the musical lineage that came before him, rather than treating his success as something that appeared out of nowhere.
Long Live Lagos” first screened at the 2025 Tribeca Festival before joining HBO’s “Music Box” documentary series.
That run gave it a festival stamp and a streaming audience, two things that tend to help when Academy voters start sorting through a crowded field.
Wizkid already has Grammy history. He won Best Music Video in 2021 for “Brown Skin Girl” with Beyoncé, Blue Ivy Carter and SAINt JHN, and his Tems collaboration “Essence” picked up a nomination for Best Global Music Performance a year later.
Fans have also been vocal over the years about the times he’s been overlooked. For a lot of his supporters, a documentary nod would feel like the Academy finally acknowledging the full scope of his career, not just a single hit.
Others will keep their expectations in check. Best Music Film usually draws heavyweight entries from major streamers and legacy acts, and a submission is only the first step in a long process.
The category also sits a little outside the usual Afrobeats spotlight. Most of the genre’s Grammy wins have come through Best African Music Performance and Best Global Music Album, so a film category opening would be a fresh lane for Nigerian artists.
For now, “Long Live Lagos” is officially in the mix. Nominations will reveal whether Gill’s portrait of Wizkid and the city that shaped him makes the final cut.
