Songfacts®:

• Wizkid recruits his fellow Nigerian singer Tems for this blissful love song. It finds both artists expressing their desire for each other and the physical connection they have together. Their mutual attraction is summarized by Tems on the chorus when she sings:
  
  You don't need no other body
  Only you fi hold my body
• Wizkid croons the introduction in Yoruba, the language of his people in Southwestern Nigeria.
• Wizkid and Tems wrote "Essence." The Nigerian superstar's Starboy label producers, Legendury Beatz and P2J, supplied the euphoric Afropop production.
• Starboy released the song as the fourth single from Made In Lagos. It became WizKid's first Hot 100 hit as the main artist, though he did previously chart as a featured artist on Drake's "One Dance" and Beyonce's "Brown Skin Girl."
• DK of PriorGold Pictures directed the video, which sees Wizkid and Tems relaxing in the streets of Accra, Ghana.
• On August 13, 2021, Wizkid released a remixed version with an additional feature from Justin Bieber, who sings a smooth romantic verse about his love story. Wiz famously worked with another Canada-born superstar, Drake, on the 2016 smash hit "One Dance."
• Rolling Stone named "Essence" the best song of 2021. "Their performances are distinct yet seamless, joining together over a melange of '90s American R&B, UK Afroswing, and percussive Nigerian Afrobeats," the magazine wrote.
• "Essence" became the first Nigerian song to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Admittedly, it probably wouldn't have reached the top tier without the help of Canadian pop star Justin Bieber's remix.
• It appears Kanye West is a huge fan of this tune. In a post to his Instagram followers, Ye dubbed "Essence," the "best song in the history of music to date."
• Made In Lagos became the all-time highest-charting Nigerian album on the Billboard 200, peaking at #28. Burna Boy's 2022 record Love, Damini, which reached #14 in 2022, surpassed it.