NAIROBI AMONG TOP CITIES WITH BIGGEST AFROBEATS FANS

The world can’t seem to get enough of Afrobeats right now. According to Spotify data, Nairobi has some of Afrobeats’ biggest fans, And it is no surprise, you just have to look at the milestones its artists are hitting including Burna Boy’s UEFA performance, Rema’s three-day concert in India and Tems’ Oscar nomination to name a few. 

Afrobeats has taken its place in the everyday moment; it’s the GRWM playlist before you go out with friends, the song in the background as you take a cab back home, it’s everywhere. Spotify recently announced  the launch of Afrobeats: Journey of a Billion Streams, a dedicated site that will track all things related to the genre. From its origins in Ghana, its popularisation in Nigeria, its fusion with other genres as well as how it has become one of the continent’s biggest cultural exports.

The site will act as a repository for this cultural phenomenon housing text, infographics and visual elements, including Spotify streaming data and results from the Spotify commissioned April 2023 Afrobeats survey. The survey, conducted by research firm Kuvora, tracks the rise of Afrobeats and its cultural impact over decades. 

“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. We created this site for both old and new fans of the genre, who would like to have a better understanding of how and where this explosive sound came to be,” says Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Spotify’s Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa.