By: Bobby Nishimwe
As is customary, I will start my review by sharing a few thoughts from my friends.
What was your favorite moment of 2023 in African music?
Amanda: Rema’s O2 performance and the 2023 NBA All Star Performance. i love those 2 moments because they pushed the boundaries of how far our music can go. The NBA all star game because we deserve to be spotlighted just like pop, hip hop, country etc. and the Rema O2 show was a great example of showing tribal culture on a mainstream stage.
Khendrick: Emeka Must Shine! - Blaqbonez never misses.
What in your opinion was the most prominent sound in African music for this year?
Amanda: Definitely amapiano! 2023 was for the amapiano warriors. So many great tracks went global, from the song of the summer — Mnike— to viral hits like Yahyuppiyah and Bhebha.
Khendrick: Amapiano .. again
Which African artist did you play the most in 2023?
Amanda: Davido. Davido’s Timeless album was on repeat! Such a great record, that project was made intentionally.
Khendrick: Wizkid & Asake according to my Spotify wrapped. I was in Wizkid top .05%
What would you like to see happen in African music for the new year?
Amanda: More artists on the road with intentional show production! More albums, our culture has thrived on single releasing culture for a long time but we need to start creating lengthier projects in order to evolve and elevate the sound. Would also love to see more genres entering pop culture, Afrobeats and Amapiano are just the beginning! I see francophone RnB making more of an impact in 2024 but would also love to see more East African music make more noise.
Khendrick: Less American collaborations.. we could do without the American remixes and more collaborations with the diaspora ! (Jamaica, Haiti, France, etc)
African artists went above and beyond in 2023. New milestones, top-charting projects, created new global award categories for African music, unprecedented venue performances and tour successes. This year was all about building upon the momentum that was laid in 2022. African artists committed themselves to releasing projects that were not only artistically successful but economically viable.
We had new and returning artists creating global fandom over the sounds emanating from Africa. South African artist Tyla captivated the attention of the world towards the tail end of summer with her top-charting song “Water.” Asake continued his streak of success by releasing a 2nd top-charting album with international performances at venues such as O2 Arena and the The Barclays Center. Burna Boy achieved a lot of firsts as an African artist in selling out and performing at various venues and stadiums around the world. Davido gave us one of the fastest charting albums in African history. South African Producer, Tyler ICU, gave us what was arguably the amapiano song of the year, “Mnike.”
Kizz Daniel never stopped releasing hit after hit, with tracks that came to define the celebratory vibes of African functions. Diamond Platnumz maintained his pulse on the trending sound of Africa, and released viral dance-challenge hits that took over African TikTok. Upcoming Nigerian artist, ODUMODUBLVCK, redefined the nature of rap music infused with local Nigerian sounds. Ayra Starr brought us an energized international tour laying the foundation for an even bigger year to come.
The prolific Kenyan male band, Sauti Sol, went on their final international tour as a group spanning from Africa, North America and Europe. Black Sherif made sure to keep the black star nation in the Africa music conversation with his soulful and melodic rap projects that gave my Ghanian brothers and sisters hope for the future of their music industry. Mr. Eazi showed African artists that their business aspirations shouldn’t be limited to the music sphere but can also expand into the entrepreneur sector. We witnessed increased cross-continental collaborations taking place especially between Nigerian and American artists.
Overall, African artists made the continent proud and placed the creative industry at the forefront of generating youth economic, cultural and social empowerment.
African Artists Performing in Global Venues and Stages
This year was about moving the African music industry to new heights, with artists performing at world class venues from the Madison Square Garden, Paris La Défense Arena, Wembley Stadium and more.
2023 was marked by African artists performing at venues that hardly would’ve been imaginable five years ago. They have shown that they are not just an impactful artistic force but an economic engine that is redefining the “lucrativeness” of the African entertainment industry.
Across various genres we are seeing artists hone in on their key markets and take their talents on the biggest stages of these markets. From Fally Ipupa’s star-studded concert at the Paris La Defense arena, selling out the venue with 40,000 seats with subsequent arena shows in London and Belgium. To Burna Boy’s endless stadium and arena concert streak, like the selling out of Citi Field in New York City, making him the first African artist to sell out a stadium show in the U.S. Davido selling out Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., to Asake headlining his own show at The Barclays Center and O2 Arena. We are on the verge of a new era for the business of African music, and our artists are showing that they are ready for fans, record labels, brands and partners to bet on their profitability.
Fally Ipupa at Paris La Defense Arena (40k)
Burna Boy Citi Field Stadium (41.8k)
Burna Boy at London Stadium (60k)
Black Coffee headline show at Madison Square Garden (19.5k)
Uncle Waffles at Coachella
Beyond venues, African artists took their music to global stages, such as the BET Awards (Davido), 2023 NBA All-Star Halftime show (Rema, Burna Boy, Tems), Champions League final (Burna Boy), Ballon d’Or Ceremony (Rema), and more.
Media tours were crucial to the success of these artists, with many appearing on international media such as the The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Interviews on the Breakfast Club, Apple Music with Zane Lowe, BBC Radio 1Xtra shows, to the AfroBeats Podcast and more.
The media tours in Africa focused on local Radio shows, especially in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, including appearances on popular African podcasts which was mostly observed in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
These appearances showcased a more holistic media strategy from those in the industry, trying to incorporate both global and local media that could allow for both awareness of artists, as well as converting new and maintaining loyalty with current fans. It’s an audience strategy that recognized the need to utilize both foreign and domestic outlets to reach a diverse demo.
2023’s Important International Media Stops for African Artists
BBC Radio 1Xtra shows
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
The Breakfast Club
Hot 97 Ebro
Apple Music with Zane Lowe
Amazon Music’s +44 Podcast with Sideman and Zeze Millz
The Afrobeats Podcast (Adesope Live)
African Artist of the Year: Tyla
Mzansi has risen and she is not going back to sleep anytime soon! The child of South Africa, Tyla, has claimed her spot in not just the African but global music scene.
Although she still has a limited discography, when it comes to the African artist of 2023, Tyla took that spot for me. Her success may have come a little bit later in the year, but the sheer momentum she had could not be ignored.
Tyla came on the scene in 2019 with her hit track “Getting Late,” which did amazing within the amapiano and African music arena. From there she was featured on projects from a wide range of African artists within the continent, while continuing to release a few tracks of her with one of them being “Water.” She released this track in summer of 2023, and after she performed the song at a show in Kigali where she poured water on her back as she did a version of the Barcardi dance, it took off like wildfire on TikTok as the “Water Challenge.”
The song picked up steam, it went viral and did quite the numbers. “Water” has over 340 million streams on Spotify alone, with her monthly listeners on the platform climbing up to 30 million. She is the youngest South African musician to ever appear on Billboard's Hot 100 charts, and has been there at number seven, which is her peak position, for 15 weeks straight. Not only that, she still is on Apple Music's Top 100 Most-Played Songs in the USA. Those numbers alone place her in the world elite streaming club of musicians. The success of this record even earned her a remix with Travis Scott, I listened to it and quite frankly I could care less for it musically speaking but certainly understand the move from a branding perspective.
She is achieving things that a lot of African artists have not themselves and I truly believe that she is on her way to being one of the greatest African entertainers, if her team plays it right.
Tyla released an EP called “Tyla,” featuring five different tracks. One of them obviously being “Water,” which is her most successful single to date. She also included “Truth or Dare” on there, which is a beautiful song that you should actually go and listen to as well as the other three tracks on there which are all really good with the exception of the remix record.
The success of that record earned her a Grammy nomination in the Recording Academy’s first ever Best African Music performance award.
African Album of the Year: Timeless by Davido, 30BG, OBO!
This album was by far in its own league, you can play the project from beginning to the end without skipping a beat. It is an artistic expression of love, loss and celebration of life. I think that it goes without saying that Davido had the Album of the Year. Timeless is one of those projects that is destined to go into the history books when we start to discuss the best African albums of all time.
Not only was it amazing from an artistic point of view, but it topped charts. Timeless was one of the highest charting albums by a Nigerian artist in US Apple music history, the 2nd highest charting Nigerian albums in UK history, and ended the year with over 300 million streams on Spotify. The album had one of the biggest African songs of 2023, “Unavailable,” featuring South African musician Musa Keys which ended the year on Spotify with over 100 million streams. Davido included a powerful and talented group of features, including the icon herself, Angélique Kidjo. Obo also included new talent that most of us had not heard of which shows how much he believed in the art that he was producing.
Between his last album and this one, Davido went through the unfortunate life-altering event of losing his son. He took some time away from the public, but to see him come back with so much strength was inspiring. Fans had an opportunity to see how integral music was to his life, as the project was able to capture various human emotions. This project is so beautiful and it is something to applaud Davido on from the storytelling, sheer human emotion infused in it, to the quality of the production, to the featured artists and what they brought to this project.
Davido had an electric BET Awards performance and earned three Grammy nominations off of this album. All showing why he deserves to have the African album of the year title.
My Top 2023 Collaborations between Nigerian & American/Caribbean Artists
Chris Brown gave us the best collaboration with African artists in 2023. I would make the case that other American artists should go to the Chris Brown school for how American-African collaborations should be done. What made Chris Brown’s collaboration with Davido and Lojay work so well is his ability to easily adopt the Nigerian Afrobeats melodic flow in his lyrical pronunciations. That keen ability of adapting to the Nigerian sound has made Chris Brown one of the best American artists to feature on Afrobeats projects.
We also had other collaborations that I believe worked quite well. For example Adekunle Gold featured Coco Jones on his track “Make It Easy,” and Askae featured H.E.R. on a remix of his hit song “Lonely At The Top.” Both Coco and H.E.R. really did their homework in formulating their vocal cadence to fit the melodic flow of those respective Afrobeats songs. Oftentimes you find yourself stopping in the midst of an American artist singing on an Afrobeats track because they cannot seem to get the flow right. I never had that worry with Coco and H.E.R.
Another American-Nigerian collaboration worth mentioning is Kizz Daniel featuring Becky G on his hit track “Cough.” Unlike the other collaborations, this one featured a Latin-American artist who not only brought a distinct flow to this Nigerian track but also included Spanish lyrics giving the song an entirely new sound. I love how Becky G crafted her vocal cadence and lyric structure to fit nicely into the various breaks and tempo formulations of the track. Being a bilingual artist certainly gives Becky G an advantage when doing cross-cultural music collaborations, as she’s had to always adapt her singing to various genres throughout her career.
The last collaboration of mention is Burna Boy hopping on the hit track “Talibans II” by British artist Byron Messia who is of St. Kitts & Nevis background. Throughout Burna Boy’s career he has always tapped into his dancehall flow, so it is only natural for him to jump on a dancehall track. These two’s melodic flows easily matched each other. Since this track was not Afrobeats, the only person who had to adapt was Burna Boy and he did the dancehall community justice.
Going forward, I would like to see a lot more collaborations between African and Caribbean artists. I think there are a lot that they both can exploit from each other’s rich musical backgrounds and elements. These two regions of the world have very diverse genres that also have very similar historical origins, and I would like for our artists to challenge themselves in exploring those areas of convergence. Collaborations between these two regions should not only be solely for fun but create a diaspora music cultural renaissance.
“Sensational” by Chris Brown ft. Davido & Lojay
“Make It Easy” by Adekunle Gold ft. Coco Jones
“Lonely At The Top (Remix)” by Asake ft. H.E.R.
“Cough” by Kizz Daniel ft. Becky G
“Talibans II” by Burna Boy & Byron Messia
Nigeria
Nigeria continues to dominate the African music industry, there just quite frankly no other African nation that can rival this loud giant. From the sheer number of expats they have in the diaspora, the quantity and quality of new artists that they pop out every day, to the global infrastructure they have amassed in pushing their artists and sound, they are truly in a category of their own. As far as they are concerned, Nigerians have no competition in Africa, their only competition are American artists. Grammy award-winning artist Burna Boy’s domination of the radio waves, streams, and sold-out arenas and stadiums around the world is a feat that has put Nigeria amongst the top nations to look at for music consumption.
Tems became a grammy-award winner for her feature in Future’s “I’ll Wait For You” track and ended the year off with two tracks “Me & U” and “Not An Angel.” Davido came back to the scene, having been grieving the unfortunate death of his son, he released one of the highest charting African albums of all-time, earning him three grammy nominations.
Rema saw his fame grow to new heights, embarking on his Rave & Roses tour with North America being a main focus with a year-ending sold-out headline show at the O2 Arena. As I had predicted, Asake also sold-out the O2 Arena and released another successful album that put him in the club of artists who just never seem to release a single bad song. Speaking of “no bad song” club, the chief of that group Kizz Daniel released his “Maverick” album that included hit tracks such as “Cough (Odo),” “Shu-Peru,” “Buga (Lo Lo Lo),” and more.
Now, I think the biggest story to come out of Nigeria for 2023 is how Hip Hop took center stage in the music industry, and that is in big part due to the rise of artists like ODUMODUBLVK and Seyi Vibez.
As much as Hip-Hop has always been popular in Africa, that never fully translated to big-time African Rap artists. You’ve always had African Hip-Hop artists since the 90s, and although they were well-known in their respective countries, they never got to reach the level of stardom that today’s African melodic rap artists enjoy.
Nigerian artist Phyno spoke about how crucial it is for African rap artists to ingratiate themselves into both the local vernacular and flow of African beats. Simply put, you cannot rap to an Afrobeats track the same way you would a trap beat. The movements that one makes when listening to ODUMODUBLVK’s “Blood on the dance floor” are not the same evoked by the Migos’ “Walk It Talk It,” both have melodic elements to them but are rooted in different musical vernacular environments.
That component of being able to ingratiate a rap flow into the local musical expressions is what separates today’s African rap artists from their former counterparts. When fans listen to Seyi Vibez or ODUMODUBLVK, they know that they will be getting authentic Nigerian Hip Hop instead of flows copied from NYC or ATL. Today’s African rap artists benefit from the fact that they have an already popular and scalable local musical scene, which they can easily tap into as a platform to elevate their own take on Hip Hop.
I am excited to see where these hip hop acts take the rap scene in Nigeria and what new artists we will be blessed with in 2024.
Spotify’s Top Songs in Nigeria
“Lonely At The Top” by Asake
“GWAGWALADA” by Bnxn ft Kizz Daniel & Seyi Vibez
“Feel” by Davido
“2:30” by Asake
“Reason” by Omah Lay
South Africa
Without South Africa, the music coming out of the continent for the past three years would sound drastically different and for that we must be grateful to the nation of Madiba. The country that brought us Amapiano during covid continues to push this genre forward with their DJ-centric music culture. Unlike previous years, the biggest Artist from Mzansi was not a DJ but a 21 year old named Tyla who took the world by a storm with their dance track of “Water.”
The taste makers of amapiano for 2023 came from both DJs, artists and performers. We had Justin99 & Pcee who proved to be quite the formidable duo pushing both dance challenges and touring around the world with their electrifying piano tracks. We also had Uncle Waffles continue her hold over the piano scene, making appearances all over the world from the U.S., Europe, across Africa and more.
Kabza De Small gave us not one but two projects, with his second “Isimo” providing us with spiritual piano gems like “Impumelelo” and “Imithandazo” both featuring the talented Young Stunna. If Young Stunna has one fan left on this earth, Bobby is still around. His vocal range alone is enough to crown him the best male piano vocalist, on top of that his voice has a powerful raspy undertone that brings out strong emotions to his songs. What Kabza did on this album can only be described as pure perfection. The storytelling in the track order and the transition from one song to the next created a flow that took your mind off the imperfections of this world into an empowering mode of musical amelioration.
Nasty C released an incredible project called “I love It Here,” where he featured the hard-hitting Buffalo Hip-Hop act, Benny The Butcher. One of my favorite tracks on the album was “release me,” and thanks to my friend Amanda, I got to witness Nasty C perform this song live at a Def Jam listening party that he had in New York City. You get that Nas and J Cole vibes flow through his rhythm and rhymes, adapting that aggressive New York attitude in his lyrical delivery.
Grammy award-winning producer and DJ Black Coffee became the first South African musician to headline a show at Madison Square Garden. Murumba Pitch had a successful year of continuously being featured in a lot of the projects that were released by the biggest names in Amapiano. Tyler ICU was the South African producer of the year in my book as he brought us back-to-back hit tracks like “Mnike,” “Suka,” “NGIMOJA,” and “Tetema.”
South Africa gave us the tunes that defined our 2023 African music experience. We got tracks like “Dalie” by Kamo Maphela, Tyler ICU & more, “Hamba Juba'' by Lady Amar, Murumba Pitch & more, to “Yahuppiyah” by Uncle Waffles, Tony Duardo, Justin99, Pcee & more.
I also want to give a shoutout to some amazing Piano vocalists from Ami Faku, Khanyisa, Pabi Cooper, Musa Keys, Murumba Pitch, Young Stunna, Aymos. On the DJ and producer side, we had the likes of Kabza De Small, DJ Maphorisa, Uncle Waffles, Daliwonga, Kelvin Momo, Kamo Mphela, Major League DJz, Tyler ICU, Yumbs, DBN Gogo and more curating piano vibes that gave the rest of the world a taste of South African creativity.
South Africa continues to excel in the quality of music that they have create and we are forever better off for having them be a part of the great storied era of African music.
Spotify’s Top Songs in South Africa
Mnike (feat. Dj Maphorisa, Nandipha808, Ceeka RSA & Tyron Dee) by Tyler ICU
Hamba Juba (feat. JL SA, Cici, Murumba Pitch) by Lady Amar
Mina Nawe by Soa Mattrix
Stimela (feat. Ntate Stunna & Nthabi Sings) by 2Point1
Awukhuzeki by Dj Stokie
Francophone Music Scene in 2023
When it comes to the Francophone music scene, there definitely has been some improvements from the previous year mostly due to platforms like TikTok which highlight a much more diverse range of content to users. As most Francophone music is sung in French, it faces an intrinsic barrier of entry into the English-speaking market (something that is not necessarily true in reverse).
Starting off with Fally Ipupa, the Congolese rumba master, who released an album called “Formule 7” at the end of 2022 which functioned as an artistic transition into 2023. This project incorporates three parts composed of 31 tracks. I like to describe it as a love story to Congolese rumba and the musical ingenuity of the Congolese people, which Fally Ipupa has been a huge part of. It is a beautiful collage of Fally’s realm at the top of Congolese Rumba for the past two decades. If you want to really indulge this genre and the different formats, tempos, melodic rhythms and flows that Congolese Rumba takes well then this is your project.
Some of the top records from this album were “Afsana,” “Mayday,” “SL,” and “Bloque.” He has surpassed 300 million overall streams on Boomplay, making him one of the first francophone artists to accomplish this milestone. Formule 7 ended the year with over 110 million streams on Boomplay. Fally ends the year with a successful world tour that easily saw hundreds of thousands of attendees from across Africa and Europe.
Beyond that, we had Tayc release an album called Room 96. I found this project to be versatile in tha he incorporated some recommendations I had for Francophone artists, which is that they needed to infuse more English words within their music, for reasons I have stated above. Tayc understands that his english-speaking fan base has grown and he is working very hard to cater to both the francophone and the anglophone audience.
I think that he received some validation in this approach as his tracks incorporating english lyrics, even if it was just a mere phrase, seem to have performed better than the others as seen in tracks like “Room 96,” garning 38 million streams and “Carry Me,” gaining 25 million streams on spotify alone. This was again seen in the release of his summer singles “Love Me” and “London Fever” with each respectively earning 7 million streams on spotify.
Tayc was arguably one of the hardest working men in the francophone music scene and he has just been releasing back to back hit tracks non stop a great quality of work of singles of tracks and he ended the year with him and Dadju partnering up to release two tracks together, “Makila:Wablé” and “I love you.” Definitely will be on the lookout for their joint album.
Also shout out to Aya Nakamura, who released an album in 2023 called DNK, which featured hit tracks like “Baby,” “Cadeau,” and “T’as peur.” She ended the year with over 237 million streams on her album just from Spotify alone. Aya is a highly marketable artist, and I believe the minute she crosses over to the anglophone market through a collaboration, song with some English words or another “Djadja,” there is potential there to become one of the biggest stars in the world.
Tanzania
In Tanzania, we saw an emergence of new acts who are taking the industry by a storm. From Jaivah, Abigail Chams, Chino Kid and more. Out of those three, Jaivah stood out as quite the breakout star. You cannot walk a few blocks in Dar Es Salaam (Business Capital of Tanzania) without hearing “Jai-vahh, Jai-vahh.” His deep melodic voice, reminiscent of that of the late Pop Smoke, has captured the nation of Tanzania like their popular choice of Ijumaa dish, biryani. Born in Tanzania, raised in South Africa, and university-educated in Tanzania, Jaivah has proven to be a force to reckon with in the BongoPiano genre that has taken over the nation in the past three years. Diamond Platnumz continued his place as the biggest artist in Tanzania and East Africa wit-large, with his label artists, Zuchu and Mbosso proving to be quite the hitmakers.
Harmonize released one of the most trendy songs from Tanzania, “Single Again.” The hashtag ‘singleagainharmonize’ garnered 3.2M views and #harmonizesingleagain garnered 2.5M views on TikTok. Marioo maintained his reign as the BongoPiano king of East Africa, embracing his hold on the fusion of Tanzanian and South African sounds.
Beyond the BongoPiano sound, Tanzanians have fully embraced their own home-grown energetic genre of Singeli. This genre is a fast paced version of Taarab that originated from the Zaramo people in the street parties of Dar es Salaam in the mid 2000s. This music form is characterized by beats that call for the listener to run around and start dancing vigorously without care, especially with the shaking of their waist. One of the prominent aspects of this genre is the fast paced conversational Kiswahili vocals that are sung in the manner of an MC at a party.
The rise of Singeli in Tanzania will be one of the most exciting things to pay attention to especially due to the genre's ability to translate well within a DJ environment. Now, I think there will have to be some tweaks applied here and there in order for the genre to expand outside of the East African region. A main component of that tweaking being a lowering of the conventional bpm associated with the genre and finding a way to infuse other popular music forms to this sound to make it an easier sell to foreign markets.
Spotify’s Top Songs in Tanzania
“Rush” by Ayra Starr
“Asiwaju” by Ruger
“Single Again” by Harmonize
“No Body (feat. Bien)” by Darassa
“Bandana” by Fireboy DML
Kenya
The country best known for their runners and wildlife has brought us an incredible pool of artists who are here to make their stamp on the African music industry. The prolific and may I say best African male group of our time, Sauti Sol, embarked on their last global tour as a group. This band has worked with the likes of Burna Boy, Davido, Tiwa Savage, India Arie, Patoranking, Yemi Alade and more. During the tour, Sauti Sol took fans through eighteen-years of pure artistic brilliance, performing fan-favorites like “Suzanna,” “Melanin,” “Insecure,” and more.
Thanks to a dear friend of mine, I got the opportunity to chat with the group after their New York City show and was beyond impressed by their passion for upcoming Kenyan artists and the African music industry wit-large. One of the members of this group, Bien, has started to carve out a lane for his solo-career with the release of his debut solo-album "Alusa Why Are You Topless?” which includes features from Ms Banks and Ayra Starr.
Outside of Sauti Sol, we saw an emergence of young Kenyan artists who are charting their own path from the likes of Nviri The Storyteller who released a beautiful project called “Inside Out.” We also got projects that nourished the soul and our romance-yearning hearts from artists like Kinoti, Xenia Manasseh, Bensoul, Njoki Karu, Ethan, Bridget Blue and more.
Spotify’s Top Songs in Kenya
“Rush” by Ayra Starr
“Asiwaju” by Ruger
“Ta Ta Ta” by Bayanni
“Bandana” by Fireboy DML
“Cough (Odo)” by Kizz Daniel
Ghana
Accra, Ghana maintained its position as the “Detty December” destination of the African Diaspora. Though they were not short of attention from the diaspora their music scene continued to be overshadowed by their bigger brother, Nigeria. Even with that fact, Ghanaian artists did not finish 2023 in silence or vein. We saw the incredible acts of Black Sherif, Kidi, King Promise, Amaree, Stonebwoy and more doing what they can to make sure Ghana stays in the conversation when discussing African music.
Black Sherif has easily been the most consequential artist that the nation has had for the past two years, his soulful and melodic rap places him in a spot to be one of the biggest acts to ever come out of Ghana. King Promise released one of the most popular African songs of the year, “Terminator (feat. Young Jonn).” This song was practically played at every single African wedding due to its catchy chorus and dance routine that took over African tiktok. Amaree is taking hold of the alté lane, creating magical visuals in her videos with riveting vocals that push creative bounds to new heights.
Going forward, I believe that Ghana could benefit in having a clearly defined sound that they can own like they did in the 2010s with the Azonto and Akwaba vibez. There is an independent Ghanaian artist whose sound I believe sounds very unique to their country and if curated properly could find audiences outside of Ghana. The artist’s name is 88bayla and his sound almost resembles that of a modern take on highlife, and I believe that it definitely has potential in being the definitive sound of the black star nation.
Spotify’s Top Songs in Ghana
“Asiwaju” by Ruger
“Lonely At The Top” by Asake
“Xtra Cool” by Young Jonn
“Soso” by Omah Lay
“Bandana” by Fireboy DML
Rise of Afro-House Music in 2023
If you attended any House event in 2023, I would be shocked to hear that the DJs did not play at least a few Afro-house songs. This sub-genre of house music has taken over the global DJ culture and music festivals. South African artists and DJs have been instrumental in evangelizing fans of House with the spiritual and ancestral vocal cadence invoked in these tracks.
The DJs that have played a huge part in growing the Afro-House genre range from Black Coffee, Kabza De Small, DJ Maphorisa, Major League DJz, Shimza, Caiiro, Sun-El Musician and more. Notice that these same DJs have also been crucial in spreading Amapiano, and that is because the Afro-House we get from South Africa also has tendencies of adopting the famous Log Drum that is infamous with Amapiano tracks. That Log Drum gives Afro-House a bounce effect that is uniquely associated with this subgenre of House.
The vocal cadence experienced on Afro-House tracks is quite frankly unparalleled to any other form of house music. Southern African female vocalists have to be commended for taking the whole meaning of spirituality to another level with their gifted vocal capabilities, some of these artists are Nobuhle, Msaki, Azana, and Simmy. Outside of South Africa we have artists from around the continent also creating magical Afro-House tracks like the likes of Idd Aziz (kenyan), Sofiya Nzau (Kenyan) who went viral for her vocals on Zerb’s “Mwaki'' track, Oluwadamvic (Nigerian) and more.
The African Music Scene in New York City
Being that I am in New York city, I must give a huge shout out to the groups that are curating the African sound in the NYC area.
Ginja whose mission is to “bring together the African Diaspora through our common language, music.” I asked the founder, Ethan Tomas, as to what impact he believes his organization is having on the African music scene in NYC, and he said that they “try to take risks and continue pushing the boundaries of what the African music party scene can be.” They accomplish this by exposing up and coming DJs to new audiences and special guest performances from artists like Boj. He also talked about the importance of maintaining true to showcasing the Afrobeats and Amapiano sound, so audiences will get what they were advertised. As someone who has attended their events, I can attest to the fact that they do stick with the program they promised.
The group has hosted 16 events across multiple countries including Ghana, launched a new series called Ginja Sessions that highlights DJ showcases. And they plan on expanding their footprint, services and offerings in 2024. By the way you should check out DJ Ethan Tomas’ viral amapiano remix of Missy Elliot’s Work It.
Everyday PPL is the summer darty function that everyone in the city is always rushing to attend, tickets for their events usually sell out in minutes upon release. DJ Moma tends to be the headline for these events accompanied by other DJs who bring a cross-diaspora flavor of sound to the hot New York summers.
Daily Paper, which is a Dutch clothing brand and store founded by three Africans has done a great job at curating mixers throughout the year with various African artists and DJs to launch new releases/partnerships.
The Grey Area at Superior Ingredients in Brooklyn is arguably one of the best spaces for experiencing both international and local Afro-House DJs.
Also shoutout to Café Erzulie in Brooklyn for holding it down, and continuously providing space where African sounds can be thoroughly engaged in and enjoyed.
Some Achievements of Notice
Rema’s “Calm Down (Remix)” with Selena Gomez record continues to top the charts, ending the year in Spotify’s top 10 songs globally. The song reached this feat by becoming the first African track to reach Spotify’s Billion stream club. This song is also in the Top 5 streamed songs on Spotify in the UAE (#2), Toronto (#4), Ottawa (#4), and Montreal (#3).
According to Spotify, since 2017 Afrobeats has grown by over 550% in streams worldwide.
Tems listed in TIME Magazine’s 100 Next, which recognizes the rising leaders in health, sports, arts, business and more. Her recognition was written by the queen of hip-hop soul herself, Mary J. Blige. Tems also won a grammy for her Melodic Rap Performance for her contribution on Future’s “Wait For You” record which sampled a verse from Tems’ record “
Davido’s “Unavailable” was in Spotify’s top 50 viral hits of 2023.
Tyla’s debut EP “Tyla” is already in Apple Music’s top 200 ( coming at #67) albums of the year in all genres, with ODUMODUBLVCK’S “EZIOKWU” album coming at 97 and Burna Boy’s “I Told Them” at #98.
My Top 2023 Five Songs From Across the Continent
“GWAGWALADA” by Bnxn, Kizz Daniel, Seyi Vibez (Nigeria)
“Mayday” by Fally Ipupa (DR Congo)
“Imithandazo” by Kabza De Small, Mthunzi, feat. Young Stunna, Dj Maphorisa, Sizwe Alakine & Umthakathi Kush (South Africa)
“Nani?” by Abigail Chams, Marioo (Tanzania)
“Ask About Me” by Mohbad (Nigeria)
My Top 2023 Five Albums From Across the Continent
“Blessed” by Mohbad (Nigeria)
“Timeless” by Davido (Nigeria)
“Formule 7” by Fally Ipupa (DR Congo)
“Isimo” by Kabza De Small (South Africa)
“The Kid You Know (Deluxe Edition)” by Marioo (Tanzania)
African Artists to Watch Out for in 2024
The following artists are the ones who I believe will either make a breakthrough or make quite the noise in their respective countries and genres.
ODUMODUBLVK (Nigeria)
Shallipopi (Nigeria)
Paige (South Africa)
Jungeli (Congolese-French)
Jaivah (Tanzania)
Abigail Chams (Tanzania)
Tyla (South Africa)
Joshua Baraka (Uganda)
Hulk Van JMF (Congolese-Dutch)
Kinoti (Kenya)
Sofiya Nzau (Kenya)
As we look to the new year, it is crucial that the industry puts the right people in the value-chain of African music. From A&Rs, producers, agents, managers, brand partnership agencies, writers, and production. We could also use more specialists who can help our western artists use local vernacular that can seemingly flow into African tracks.
For those wishing for the end of Amapiano, I have bad news for you, that is not happening anytime soon. The South African genre is here to stay for a while, and I am excited to see the different ways it reinvents itself as it continues to grow around the world. I am also interested in seeing Afro-House being more popular across Africa and amongst the diaspora.
I want to thank Amanda Nyang'oro, Khendrick Beausoleil, and DJ Ethan Tomas for their wonderful insights which allowed me to infuse enriching perspectives within this blog article.
There is a lot to look forward to in 2024, which is why you should subscribe and follow my blog to stay up to date on what will be taking place for African music.