Music: who are the most popular artists in Africa?

The number of users of the music streaming platform Spotify has increased in Africa. Result: several African artists are entering the rankings, sometimes even dethroning international stars.

Charts Africa and Spotify have delivered their ranking of the most listened to artists around the world. And good news: in Africa, we mostly listen to… African music. Certainly, the world star of Afro-fusion, the Nigerian Burna Boy, remains unbeatable in all the rankings. But other African artists quickly climbed the charts, whether in Africa or other parts of the world.

This is the case, for example, of Moroccan rapper ElGrande Toto. With more than 50 million streams for his album “Caméléon”, released last March, he is the most streamed African artist in the Arab world, and the sixth in Africa for the period August-November.

Another revelation, Afrobeat singer Chukwuka Ekweani, aka CKay. His single "Love Nwantiti", released in 2020, has been the subject of collaborations with four other artists. Today, he is enjoying worldwide success, in particular thanks to fans' covers on social networks, CKay now has 15 billion streams on TikTok and 14 million on Spotify.

As for the Nigerian r'n'b singer Tems, she has seen her single "Crazy Tings" streamed 9 million times on Spotify since its release at the end of October. Not to mention Afro superstars, also Nigerian, Wizkid and Davido, who are respectively second and fifth in number of streams.

Top 10 most streamed African artists on Spotify [Sep. 19–20, 2021]…

1.@ckay_yo - 8.03M
2.@wizkidayo - 5.66M
3.@burnaboy - 4.28M
4.@temsbaby - 4.17M
5.@davido - 1.56M
6.@mreazi - 1.16M
7.@heisrema - 1.04M
8.@Omah_Lay - 976.4K
9.@fireboydml - 729.6K
10.@Olamide - 650K

- ChartsAfrica📊 (@chartsafrica) September 22, 2021

In Africa, we consume local music

The most popular African music, in Africa and around the world, is undoubtedly from Nigeria. Besides the legend Burna Boy, many Nigerian singers have enjoyed sometimes dazzling worldwide success. If Davido and Wizkid remain references of Afro and Afro-pop, we must now count on Tems, Rema, Omah Lay and Mr Eazi.

Read: Burna Boy, the Nigerian king of Afro-fusion, has a series of successes

In some parts of Africa, on the other hand, Nigerian Afrobeat is not the most popular style. In North Africa, we prefer Egyptian pop: the singer Muslim is undoubtedly the most listened to artist in Egypt and Libya.

In the Maghreb, rap is enjoying growing success. Eight of the ten most streamed songs in the past five months are rap tracks. The Moroccan ElGrande Toto is the most listened to artist on Spotify in the whole MENA region and in North Africa. However, he was caught up by the Algerian rai singer Mouh Milano, who overtook Toto, especially on YouTube.

In West Africa, Senegalese afrotrap and pop singer Jeeba remains the most listened to and streamed in Senegal, Mauritania and even Gambia. And in Central Africa, where Spotify is not yet installed, the Congolese rumba takes everything in terms of sales and on YouTube. Thus, Koffi Olomide continues to multiply successes. Lesser-known Congolese rumba singers have managed the feat of standing out from the crowd, even surpassing Olomide, like Fally Ipupa and Dadju.