It started with a dance in 2023. A gentle sway, her arms moving like waves and her feet moving to the rhythm of the Amapiano beat as she poured water down her back.
“Make me sweat, make me hotter, make me lose my breath, make me water.”
It was the moment Tyla, a 21-year-old South African artist, transformed from a rising musician into a global artist, capturing hearts on TikTok with her mesmerizing moves and breathtaking voice.
Tyla’s hit “Water” turned her into a global sensation and redefined the sound of Amapiano worldwide. Amapiano means “the piano” in Zulu and is a fusion of jazz, house and kwaito (a South African version of house music) characterized by piano melodies, Zulu rhythms and catchy bass lines. With these sounds, “Water” became an international anthem as its rhythm and soft vocals found fans from Johannesburg to New York, Lagos to London and Kampala to Berlin.
What started as one video turned into millions of videos, with followers trying (and often failing) to capture Tyla’s moves. But it wasn’t just the dance; it was the sound of the Amapiano beat that drew people in. Months later, in February 2024, Tyla won the first-ever Grammy Award in the new Best African Music Performance category. Africans like Nigeria’s Burna Boy, the Nigerian-born British singer Sade, the legendary Nigerian singer Sunny Ade and South Africa’s Miriam Makeba have won Grammy Awards before in the Best Global Music Album category. This award recognizes albums that represent the diversity of international music and cultural expression. With the newly introduced Africa-specific award, many Africans saw Tyla’s win as the moment African music rewrote the rules of global pop culture and showed the world that it is here to stay.
Tyla’s success is not just about her as an individual artist; it’s a symbol of how African music is becoming a global force. Sounds from the continent are reaching the Western world like never before, reshaping the global music industry. But some artists complain about unfair royalties and bad contracts, and even as the world enjoys these beats the question remains: Are the artists and cultures behind them benefiting, or is the global music system taking more than it gives?
It is not just Amapiano, from the southern tip of the continent, that is gaining new listeners beyond Africa. West Africa’s Afrobeat, a genre created by the legendary Fela Kuti in the 1960s, continues to make waves across the globe. The late American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis once described Kuti as a “life-changing artist.” Kuti fused American blues, jazz and funk with traditional Yoruba music, turning Afrobeats into a cultural phenomenon in Nigeria that later gained worldwide acclaim.
This global appeal of African music by musicians like Kuti undoubtedly paved the way for today’s artists to captivate international audiences.
Some of the Afrobeat artists who are taking the world by storm include Burna Boy, who made history with a Grammy win for the album “Twice As Tall,” while Wizkid’s album “Made in Lagos” secured his place as an international star. Tems collaborated with global stars like Drake and Rihanna, while Davido’s hits like “Fall” and “If” have captured audiences around the world.
As well as Tyla, artists like Davido, Asake, Burna Boy, Wizkid and South Africa’s Master KG have dominated playlists and packed arenas in the West’s capital cities. In 2021, Burna Boy packed The O2 Arena in London during his “Space Drift” gig, where he made a dramatic entrance in a spaceship wearing a white NASA jacket and boots. In 2024, Asake and Davido both filled Madison Square Garden, selling out the venue’s 20,000-seat capacity.
This is a story of African artists, celebrated in their home countries, bringing their music to the global stage — not Western artists with African ancestry borrowing African sounds. And this global success is not just driven by sold-out shows but also by the role of digital music platforms.
Spotify, Apple Music and other such platforms have contributed significantly to the worldwide appeal of African music by offering artists a way to reach audiences far from their countries. By creating playlists like “Africa Heat,” “Africa Now” and “Amapiano Grooves,” they have placed artists like Burna Boy and Wizkid alongside global superstars.
Although Amapiano is only a decade old, the genre has seen remarkable growth, according to the music streaming giant Spotify. In 2023, it clocked 1.4 billion streams and, as of June 2024, it stood at over 855 million streams globally.
Spotify’s data on the biggest songs and genres across the world shows that global Afrobeats streams increased by 34% in 2024. The streaming service also reported a 114% growth in music consumption in sub-Saharan Africa, growth outstripping other regions that has fueled discussion of a musical renaissance on the continent.
While these numbers reflect African music’s rise globally, they also raise deeper questions about cultural dilution and who holds the power and reaps the financial benefits of this global phenomenon.
The South African music legend Yvonne Chaka Chaka, fondly known as the “Princess of Africa,” has spent many years advocating for artists’ rights. She complains that some African artists attract global audiences but do not get the rewards they are due from the lucrative music industry in the West.
“I always say that when the music is being streamed, let the money stream back to the musician’s pockets. This is not what is happening generally and I speak for the majority of artists,” Chaka Chaka told New Lines. “African artists are dying every day as paupers because there are no proper policies, no proper governance. So, you go and perform and you don’t know which collecting society collects your money. Your music is being played and downloaded but you have no clue which CMO [collective management organization] has your royalties, it’s a shame.”
It is the CMOs’ role to collect royalties on behalf of the musicians and negotiate licenses with the digital platforms. In return, the digital platforms pay the CMOs a license fee. Once the royalties are collected, CMOs distribute them to the musicians and rights holders.
Africa has several CMOs at both the national and regional levels that manage musicians’ rights and royalties. There are often disputes over how royalties are calculated, with some artists and CMOs arguing that streaming platforms do not pay enough.
In addition to digital media platforms, social media has been instrumental in elevating African music on the global scene.
Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok have transformed songs like “Jerusalema” into viral sensations, introducing African music to millions who may otherwise never have stumbled upon it. A South African song by Master KG and Nomcebo Zikode, “Jerusalema” went viral in 2020 after an Angolan dance troupe posted a video of themselves dancing to the song on YouTube. The video then inspired the #JerusalemaDanceChallenge, which captured the attention of politicians, spiritual leaders, celebrities and many others.
The phenomenon of going viral shows how social media not only spreads music to more people but also helps African artists to connect directly with their fans.
Diamond Platnumz is a Tanzanian singer and one of Africa’s most prominent musicians. Through Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, Diamond regularly interacts with his fans by sharing his behind-the-scenes moments and snippets of his daily life and engaging directly with his followers in live sessions.
His YouTube channel, with over 9 million subscribers, has made him one of the most-viewed African artists on the platform. Diamond has popularized Tanzanian Bongo Flava music globally, proving how powerful these platforms are in giving African artists direct access to a worldwide audience.
But although social media has transformed the music industry and created extraordinary opportunities, there are concerns about financial disparities.
“In countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, content creators are monetized on some social media platforms, but the majority of the continent are excluded. So if an artist from Zambia, for instance, gets a million views on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok, they receive nothing, unlike their Western counterparts, who make millions online,” the U.S.-based Zambian Davies Chirwa, founder of Channel ATV in Seattle, told New Lines.
While African artists in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa enjoy monetized social media platforms, they make much less than their counterparts in the West.
One of the key reasons for this is that streaming platforms pay lower advertisement rates in Africa because the costs are tied to local economies, where brands typically spend less than those in the West.
Audience demographics also affect the revenue, as many of the musicians’ audiences are based in their own countries, where ad revenues per view are much lower than in the U.S. or Europe. African musicians and creators also receive small brand sponsorships and endorsement deals because local brands have smaller budgets and international brands do not prioritize African markets as much as Western ones.
This financial gap is, however, just part of the story. As African artists strive to break into global markets, another issue arises: the risk of cultural dilution. There are fears that many artists are composing music to suit Western tastes, which inevitably leads to African music losing its authenticity.
One of Zimbabwe’s most influential musicians, Jah Prayzah, is known for his distinct blend of traditional Shona rhythms, reggae and pop influences. His songs often speak about both cultural pride and modern life, bridging the gap between generations.
“The indigenous raw African music is no longer popular in the West. During the struggle for independence in Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa, our musicians like Thomas Mapfumo and Miriam Makeba sang struggle songs with our authentic beats and these tunes were popular in the West. Now Amapiano and Afrobeats are overshadowing our distinct traditional beats and this concerns me,” Prayzah told New Lines.
Another artist, Nigeria’s rapper Santi, who draws much of his inspiration from Western icons like Ja Rule, 50 Cent and Fila Phil, has expressed his frustrations about the pressure to shape African music to meet Western expectations. In an interview with Okay Africa, Santi opened up about how African musicians are sometimes expected to blend Western pop elements into their sound in order to secure a place in the global market. “They want you to fit in,” he explained. “They don’t want to hear the true sound of Africa, they want a version that conforms to what is trending in the West.”
The Nigerian writer Tilewa Kazeem made the point in an article for Grammy.com, writing that “While Afrobeats and Amapiano are certainly crossing over in America, Tyla’s win reflects how Western influence is often necessary for African music to transcend the continent.”
In a 2024 interview with the South African radio station Power FM, Tyla shared which singers inspired her. “I listen to a lot of Brian McKnight, Boyz II Men, Aaliyah and Rihanna. I was like, I want to be her,” Tyla said.
Yet not everyone agrees with the belief that today’s African artists are altering their music to appeal to Western audiences. “I think that these artists are basically trying to find ways to balance commercial success with cultural identity,” Thierry Ngombet, an Afro-French music critic, told New Lines, speaking from Paris. “I really don’t see any dilution. Burna Boy blends Afrobeat with hip-hop, reggae and rock but if you listen to his message, it has pan-African themes. Davido and Wizkid use African languages and rhythm and combine that with Western R&B and pop.” He added, “I tell you, these genres are evolving and artists should be allowed to blend influences with their heritage.”
Another aspect of the blending of influences is the rise of collaborations between African artists and those in the West. Over the past decade, collaborations between the two have become a defining feature of the music industry. From Drake and Wizkid’s “One Dance” and “Come Closer” to Beyonce’s “Lion King: The Gift” album, which featured Teckno, Mr Eazi, Burna Boy and Tiwa Savage, among others, these partnerships raised the profiles of the African artists. Another example is Rema’s “Calm Down,” which initially had 600 million streams on Spotify. After Selena Gomez joined for the remix, the numbers skyrocketed to 1.5 billion streams in January 2025.
“Today’s collaborations between African artists and their Western counterparts are built on synergetic exchanges of ideas, goals and visions,” said MJ Wemoto, a Zimbabwean artist and music analyst, on his YouTube channel. “There is actual respect [in] these collaborations with Western artists, often delivering the best version of their talent to elevate African music. They are calling African musicians and saying, ‘I need some sauce in this.’”
While collaborations have brought African writers more visibility in the West, this attention signals something much larger than viral trends and chart-topping hits; it’s about opening doors to a deeper appreciation of the continent’s vast musical heritage.
Professor John Collins, an ethnomusicologist based in Ghana and a leading voice in West African music since 1969, is optimistic that Afrobeat’s current popularity represents a second wave — a much stronger one than that of the era of Fela Kuti. “It’s going to open gates,” he told New Lines, comparing it to the rise of rock ‘n’ roll.
“Rock ‘n’ roll came out of rhythm and blues. It was initially criticized for being a watered-down version of rhythm and blues, but its popularity led to a renewed interest in the roots of the genre, resulting in collaborations between rock ‘n’ roll artists and older blues musicians,” he said. Collins believes that Afrobeats will serve to spark the Western audience’s curiosity in a range of African music genres, such as highlife and soukous.
The growing recognition of African music paves the way for more success, with the new Grammy category for Best African Music Performance being an important step forward. The award is a long-awaited global validation for African musicians.
The nominees for this year’s ceremony on Feb. 5, 2025, represent a diverse mix of the continent’s talent. From Yemi Alade’s anthem “Tomorrow” to Asake and Wizkid’s genre-blending hit “MMS,” and from Burna Boy’s “Higher” to the collaboration of Chris Brown with Davido and Lojay on “Sensational,” and Tems’ soulful “Love Me Jeje,” these songs demonstrate how African artists continue to shape the global music scene.
A win for any of these artists not only symbolizes individual success but solidifies African music and opens the doors for more stories, struggles and cultural expressions to be shared globally. The award enables greater visibility and new collaborations, but this must translate into equity and ensure that African artists and creators receive a fair share of the profits that their work generates.
As the world dances to Africa’s beats, the real celebration should be in lifting up the creators who make it all possible.
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