WURLD BROUGHT THE “SPUNK” BACK TO ATLANTA
Inside the Nigerian-American soul star's first hometown-adjacent set since his return, captured by Skyy Wonders for IMARO Magazine
The story didn't start at Terminal West. It started the day before, in a quieter room, when Skyy Wonders and Fab Lane Media were given a seat inside WurlD's rehearsal with his band. That kind of access is never guaranteed, and it showed in how it was handled, his kindness and calm poise set the tone the moment we walked in, making space for us to simply be present and capture it as it unfolded. No performance mode, no distance. Just an artist and his band working through the details, piece by piece, in a room trusted enough to witness it. It was the first sign of what the next night would become, a performance built on real chemistry, not just rehearsed choreography.
That chemistry showed up in full on September 6th. WurlD's first Atlanta performance since coming back stateside wasn't a comeback show so much as a reintroduction, to the city, to the crowd, and honestly, to himself. And this was a LIVE performance in every sense, WurlD came through with a full live band, giving every song room to breathe and shift in real time. From the second he stepped out, the energy in the room shifted. This wasn't a man performing at an audience. This was a man performing with one. He gave us life. He gave us intimacy. He gave us sexy. He gave us “SPUNK,” the song and the attitude. And somewhere in the middle of it all, he left the stage entirely, walking straight into the crowd to sing and dance shoulder to shoulder with the people who came out to see him. That's not a stage move. That's a soulful electronic frequency running through everybody in the building at the same time, artist included.
He moved through a catalog that spans eras of his sound: "Press," "Show You Off," "Sweet in the Middle," "Spunk," "Contagious," "Grateful," and "Sade." Hearing "Contagious" live hit different, the single dropped just one day before the show, on September 5th, and the room already knew every word.
None of it happened in isolation. Radiant Tie held the mic as MC and got the crowd primed before a note even played. DJ POKO kept the transitions seamless, locking everyone onto WurlD's frequency all night. Rundatrax opened, and there's no gentler way to say it, the man is an energy god of Afrobeats, setting a bar that the rest of the night had to rise to meet, and it did. WurlD's day one, Ecool, and DJ Kash brought their own charge to the stage, while dancers CWhatspoppin and her dance partner moved the room with the kind of flow that turns a performance into a full sensory experience.
Skyy Wonders was on the floor and behind the scenes for all of it, from that rehearsal the day before to the final note at Terminal West, capturing the performance and the in-between moments that made it one. This coverage was made possible through a media partnership between IMARO Magazine / Skyy Wonders Photography, Fab Lane Media, and Quade Media, three Atlanta-based media brands bringing professional event and performance coverage to one of the city's most anticipated homecoming sets of the year. Proud to build alongside teams doing it at this level.
Terminal West, Atlanta | WurlD @thisiswurld | Behind the scenes & performance: Skyy Wonders @skyywonders | Media Partners: Fab Lane Media @yesfablane and Quade Media @quademedia