N 2017, Afrobeats was streamed two billion times on Spotify.Two years later, Nigeria’s Wizkid was headlining the Afro Republik Festival to a sold-out crowd at the 02 Arena in London.
The main areas of focus are set to be:
Origins explores the genres that acted as precursors of Afrobeats as we know it.
Evolution dives deeper into which industry players contributed to the current Afrobeats sound that the whole world can’t seem to get enough of.
Fusion looks at how Afrobeats has emerged by melding itself with other genres such as Reggaeton, Amapiano, and other hybrids.
Cultural exportation documents the influence of Afrobeats in music, food, language, and fashion lenses, especially in countries outside Africa.
The Women of Afrobeats sheds light on some of the key women in the industry whose contributions propelled the genre to its current status as a global sensation.
Last month, Afrobeats Giant Burna Boy made history as the first African artist to headline a UK stadium, playing the sold out 80,000-seater West Ham United venue, with Wizkid also recently delivering a memorable performance at Glastonbury.
If you’re wondering why the top tier artists are in the UK as often as they are, wonder no more, London is the city with the second highest Spotify streams of Afrobeats music, after Lagos.
Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, MD for Spotify in Sub-Saharan Africa said: “There is no doubt that Afrobeats as a genre is here to stay and will only continue to shatter more ceilings.
“This year alone, the genre has been played for more than 223 million hours with streams exceeding 7.1 billion on Spotify.
