There may be many aspiring influencers who hope to go viral or achieve a steady follower count nowadays, but the social media following that Ahmad Aqil Zulkiflee has is truly staggering. Better known as Aqil, he boasts 1.3M followers on Instagram and 1.73 subscribers on YouTube at the time of writing.
The 27-year-old has now made Malaysia proud by beating out other prominent content creators from Japan (Hikakin), Indonesia (Gen Halilintar), and the Philippines (Niana Guerrero) at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.
The awards show took place on 4 March at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, California and was hosted by Nate Burleson and Chari D’Amelio. The annual ceremony honours the best in film, television, music, sports, and more which are all voted on by viewers worldwide.
Other winners at the awards were BTS who won took home the orange blimp for ‘Favorite Music Group’. It marked their fourth consecutive year winning the award and their seventh overall trophy from the Kids’ Choice Awards. This meant that they broke their own Guinness World Record yet again for “the most Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards won by a music group.” Harry Styles also won awards for ‘Favourite Album’, ‘Favourite Male Artist’, and ‘Favourite Global Music Star’. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift bagged the ‘Favourite Female Artist’ and ‘Favourite Album’ award.
Posting about his win on his Instagram page, he said, “I can’t really believe that I won the Kids’ Choice Award 2023 for the category of ‘Favourite Asian Creator’. Even though the number of Malaysian citizens isn’t as many as the other countries in the category, but we WON!!! Thank you to everyone who voted for me numerous times and those who have supported me until now. Our efforts so far have not been in vain. MALAYSIA BOLEH.”
Aqil posts various topics on his YouTube channel such as travel, food, and unboxing videos. He has taken on a ‘24 hours in a swimming pool’ challenge, posted a ‘Shopping Haul of Japanese products’, and visited Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan. He is also the owner of his own corndog business Corndog Aqilicious which has stalls in Malacca and Johor.
The Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards airs on the Nickelodeon HD channel, Astro on 8 March 2023 at 6.30pm.
Follow Aqil on Instagram or subscribe to his YouTube channel.
Image credit: @aqilzulkiflee