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Afrobeats Takes Over
From Fela Kuti to Burna Boy’s stadiums and Tyla’s Grammy: how West African and South African pop went worldwide.
Afrobeat vs Afrobeats
That one letter matters:
- Afrobeat is the 1970s sound Fela Kuti created in Nigeria: long jams mixing jazz, funk and highlife with fierce political lyrics.
- Afrobeats is the modern umbrella for West African pop, mostly from Nigeria and Ghana. It blends hip-hop, R&B, dancehall and highlife.
The crossover
- 2016: Drake’s "One Dance", featuring Nigerian star Wizkid, spends 10 weeks at No. 1 in the US.
- 2021: Wizkid’s "Essence" with Tems becomes a summer anthem, and a remix with Justin Bieber goes top 10.
- 2022: Tems is featured on Future and Drake’s No. 1 "Wait for U", and later wins a Grammy for it.
- 2023: Rema’s "Calm Down" (with a Selena Gomez remix) becomes the first song by an African artist to pass a billion streams on Spotify.
Burna Boy, the giant
Burna Boy calls himself the "African Giant". His album Twice as Tall won the Grammy for Best Global Music Album, and in 2023 he became the first African artist to headline a stadium in the US.
Amapiano
From South Africa comes amapiano: slow, hypnotic house music with a deep "log drum" bass. Tyla took it global with "Water", which won the first-ever Grammy for Best African Music Performance in 2024.
Pop quiz
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