Category: Afrobeats

Nigeria’s music runs from Yoruba talking drums, Igbo highlife and Hausa praise singing through jùjú, fuji and Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, to the afrobeats and afro-pop wave led by Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido, Tems and Rema. Today it is the most commercially powerful popular music made in Africa. Below, I trace how each era and genre fed the next and name the songs that marked every turn.

Last updated: October 29, 2026

What makes music in Nigeria different

Nigeria has more than 200 million people and more than 500 living languages, so I never treat Nigerian music as one sound. It is a crowded marketplace of regional traditions that have borrowed from each other for a century.

Three large cultural blocs shape most of what reaches the charts. The Yoruba southwest has drum-led party music. The Igbo southeast has guitar-heavy highlife. The Hausa-Fulani north has a long line of court musicians and praise singers. Edo, Ijaw, Efik, Tiv, Urhobo and dozens of other communities add their own instruments, rhythms and dialects.

Nigerian Pidgin ties all of this together. Because a kid in Kano, a trader in Onitsha and a student in Ibadan can all follow it, Pidgin became the commercial language of pop. That explains why a single line can hop from Yoruba to Pidgin to English without losing anyone.

The other constant is Lagos. Since colonial times it has been the place where record labels, radio, nightclubs, owambe parties and, more recently, streaming-era studios cluster. Most of the genres below were either born in Lagos or had to win Lagos to go national.

Traditional foundations: drums, praise and ceremony

Before records, music in Nigeria was functional: it accompanied naming ceremonies, funerals, harvests, kingship rites and religious worship. Much of what sounds like pure entertainment in modern African music from Nigeria still carries that ceremonial DNA.

In Yorubaland the dùndún, the hourglass-shaped talking drum, imitates the rising and falling tones of the Yoruba language. A skilled drummer can “speak” praise names and proverbs. The bàtá drum ensemble, tied to the worship of Ṣàngó, supplies faster, sharper patterns. Both survive in jùjú, fuji and a surprising number of current afrobeats productions.

Igbo music leans on the ogene (a metal gong), the ekwe (a slit drum), and the udu (a clay pot drum). The interlocking bell patterns of ogene music carried straight into the guitar lines of eastern highlife. In the late 2010s and 2020s, Igbo pop artists brought those patterns back into the mainstream again.

Hausa tradition revolves around professional praise singers and court musicians. The long kakaki trumpets herald emirs, the goje fiddle and kuntigi lute accompany storytellers, and singers such as Mamman Shata, Dan Maraya Jos and Barmani Choge became household names across the north on radio. Northern pop today, including the songs that soundtrack Kannywood films, still borrows from that praise-singing tradition.

Nigerian music timeline at a glance

Era	What dominated	Key names
1920s to 1940s	Palm-wine guitar, early jùjú, church music	Tunde King, Irewolede Denge
1950s to 1960s	Dance-band highlife	Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya, Rex Lawson
Late 1960s to 1970s	Jùjú, Afrobeat, eastern guitar highlife	I.K. Dairo, Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Adé, Fela Kuti
1970s to 1980s	Fuji, Afro-funk, boogie, reggae	Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, William Onyeabor, Sonny Okosun, Majek Fashek
1990s	Industry collapse, early hip-hop and galala	The Remedies, Trybesmen, Daddy Showkey
2000s	Naija pop boom	2face Idibia, D’banj, P-Square, 9ice, M.I
2010s	Afrobeats goes global	Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy, Olamide, Tiwa Savage
2020s	Grammys, stadiums, amapiano fusions, alté	Tems, Rema, Asake, Ayra Starr

Highlife: the first national pop sound

Highlife reached Nigeria from Ghana. Big-band leaders such as E.T. Mensah toured Lagos in the 1950s, and Nigerian bands quickly built their own versions, mixing brass, guitars and ballroom rhythms with local melody.

Bobby Benson ran one of the most influential Lagos dance bands of the 1950s. Victor Olaiya, the “Evil Genius of Highlife,” led the Cool Cats, a band in which a young Fela Ransome-Kuti sang and played before founding his own groups. Olaiya’s “Baby Jowo” later returned for a new generation through a remake with 2Baba.

Cardinal Rex Lawson, from the Niger Delta, wrote some of the most enduring highlife songs of the 1960s, including “Sawale.” Victor Uwaifo, from Benin City, scored a national smash with “Joromi” and pushed the guitar to the front of the band.

The Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to 1970 split the scene. Many Igbo musicians left Lagos for the east, and there they built a stripped-down, guitar-driven style. That style produced Celestine Ukwu’s philosophical “Ije Enu,” Oliver De Coque’s dense guitar workouts and Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe’s 1984 classic “Osondi Owendi.”

Then there is “Sweet Mother,” the 1976 tribute to motherhood by Cameroonian-Nigerian bandleader Prince Nico Mbarga and Rocafil Jazz. Sung in Pidgin over bright, happy guitars, it became one of the most widely played songs in African history. I still hear it at parties in London and Houston where nobody under thirty knows who recorded it.

Highlife never died. In the 2010s Flavour revived eastern highlife for clubs with “Nwa Baby (Ashawo Remix),” and much of today’s afro-pop still uses highlife’s guitar phrasing and melody even when the beats are electronic.

Jùjú and the Lagos party circuit

Jùjú grew out of 1920s and 1930s Lagos palm-wine guitar music. Tunde King is usually credited as its first star. By the 1950s and 1960s, I.K. Dairo had added accordion and talking drum and become the first Nigerian musician honoured with an MBE, in 1963.

The genre exploded once the civil war pushed highlife out of Lagos. Two bandleaders defined its golden age. Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey built a smooth, proverb-rich style he called miliki. King Sunny Adé brought pedal steel guitar, layered talking drums and long, hypnotic dance suites.

Jùjú was built for the owambe, the lavish Yoruba party where guests “spray” banknotes on performers. Bandleaders sang praise for wealthy patrons by name, and that economy shaped how songs were structured: long, open grooves that could stretch for as long as the money kept coming.

King Sunny Adé took jùjú abroad. Island Records released his album Juju Music internationally in 1982, and it earned him a Grammy nomination. For many Western listeners, KSA was the first Nigerian star they saw live.

In the late 1980s Sir Shina Peters gave the genre a faster, flashier edge with his “Afro-juju” sound on the album Ace. Obey eventually moved toward gospel ministry, a path many Nigerian secular stars have followed.

Apala, sakara, waka and fuji: the Yoruba Muslim line

A second Yoruba tradition grew from Islamic practice rather than church or dance-hall culture. Apala, led by Haruna Ishola, used talking drums, shekere and agidigbo (a thumb piano) to back long, philosophical vocal lines. Sakara, associated with Yusuf Olatunji, was earthier and more percussive.

Waka is a vocal style rooted in Muslim women’s singing. Salawa Abeni, crowned the “Queen of Waka,” and Batile Alake carried it into the record era, and it remains one of the few traditional genres where women led from the front.

Fuji grew from were, the music young men performed to wake the faithful for the pre-dawn meal during Ramadan. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister shaped it into a full commercial genre and gave it the name. His long rivalry with Ayinla Kollington defined Yoruba street music through the 1970s and 1980s.

Fuji has kept regenerating. Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, known as K1 De Ultimate, became its dominant star from the 1990s on, followed by Pasuma and Saheed Osupa. In the 2020s, Asake openly built his sound on fuji vocal phrasing laid over amapiano log drums. I think that hybrid is the clearest proof that the old Lagos street sound still powers the newest one.

Fela Kuti and Afrobeat

Fela Anikulapo Kuti began as a highlife-jazz musician with his band Koola Lobitos. A 1969 trip to the United States changed him. He met Sandra Izsadore, read Black Power writing and heard James Brown’s funk as a political statement.

Back in Lagos he renamed his band Nigeria 70, then Africa 70, and fused highlife, jùjú rhythm, jazz horns and funk into Afrobeat. Drummer Tony Allen built the music’s rolling, polyrhythmic engine. Fela sang in Pidgin so his attacks on corruption, military rule and colonial thinking could reach the whole country.

Songs stretched past ten minutes. “Water No Get Enemy” (1975) uses a proverb about water’s power to say that nobody can fight what everyone needs. “Zombie” mocked soldiers who follow orders without thinking. The military answered in February 1977 with a brutal raid on Fela’s commune, the Kalakuta Republic. His mother, the activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was thrown from a window during the attack and died the following year. Fela responded later with “Coffin for Head of State.”

Afrobeat ran parallel to other African experiments of the period: Ethio-jazz in Addis Ababa, a story worth reading alongside the music of Ethiopia, and Manu Dibango’s Soul Makossa from neighbouring Cameroon, which reached American dancefloors in the early 1970s.

Fela died on August 2, 1997. His sons Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti (who still leads Fela’s later band, Egypt 80) have kept the sound alive and collected Grammy nominations, and the Broadway musical FELA! introduced him to theatre audiences in 2009. His club, the Shrine, continues in Lagos as the New Afrika Shrine.

The 1970s and 1980s: funk, boogie and reggae

The oil-boom 1970s gave Nigeria money, nightlife and an appetite for imported rock, soul and disco. Bands such as BLO, The Funkees and Ofege made Afro-rock, while Christy Essien-Igbokwe and the Lijadu Sisters brought powerful female vocals into pop.

William Onyeabor recorded strange, synth-heavy funk records such as “Fantastic Man” on his own label in Enugu. They sold modestly at the time and were rediscovered decades later by Western crate-diggers and reissue labels.

Sonny Okosun mixed rock, reggae and highlife into his “ozzidi” sound and used it to support liberation movements in southern Africa on songs like “Papa’s Land” and “Fire in Soweto.” Onyeka Onwenu, a singer and broadcaster, scored with “One Love” and became one of the most respected voices of the decade.

Majek Fashek gave Nigeria its biggest reggae moment with “Send Down the Rain,” a prayer for rain that became a national anthem of sorts in the late 1980s. Ras Kimono and Evi Edna Ogholi followed with their own reggae hits.

The 1990s: collapse and rebuild

The 1980s Structural Adjustment Programme crushed the naira, and imported equipment and vinyl became unaffordable. Multinationals that had pressed Nigerian records for decades, including EMI, Decca and Polygram, scaled back or left. Piracy filled the gap, and live-band culture shrank under military rule and night curfews.

Two policy changes laid the groundwork for a revival. Broadcasting deregulation in the early 1990s licensed private stations, starting with Ray Power FM in 1994 and later Lagos stations such as Cool FM. Those stations needed local content and gave young acts airtime state radio rarely did.

The music of that decade was cheap to make and young in spirit. The Remedies, a trio of Tony Tetuila, Eedris Abdulkareem and Eddy Montana, had a street hit with “Shakomo.” Daddy Showkey popularised galala, a ragga-influenced Lagos ghetto sound. Trybesmen and Junior & Pretty pushed early Nigerian hip-hop. Kennis Music, founded by Kenny Ogungbe and Dayo Adeneye, became the label that turned this scene into a business.

The 2000s: the Naija pop boom

Civilian rule returned in 1999, and with it came a confident new pop scene built on cheap digital production, private radio, music videos and, from the mid-2000s, pan-African TV channels such as MTV Base Africa and Channel O.

2face Idibia (later 2Baba) left the boy band Plantashun Boiz and released “African Queen” in 2004. The acoustic love song travelled across the continent and onto the soundtrack of the 2006 American comedy Phat Girlz. I would call it the first record of the afrobeats era.

Producer Don Jazzy and singer D’banj launched Mo’ Hits Records in 2004 and built a string of hits on Don Jazzy’s synth-heavy beats. Twin brothers P-Square turned slick R&B harmonies and dance routines into a pan-African brand. Styl-Plus scored a radio staple with “Olufunmi.” Asa released her soulful 2007 debut, home to “Jailer,” and found a large following in France.

9ice made Yoruba proverbs cool again with “Gongo Aso” in 2008. That same year Jos rapper M.I Abaga released Talk About It on Chocolate City, and tracks like “Safe” proved that Nigerian hip-hop could sell albums. The Headies awards, launched in 2006 as the Hip Hop World Awards, gave the scene its own industry ceremony.

The 2010s: afrobeats goes global

The new decade arrived with three young stars. Wizkid’s “Holla at Your Boy” (2010) on Empire Mates Entertainment introduced a teenage singer with a light, melodic voice. Davido, son of a billionaire businessman, broke through with “Dami Duro” in 2011. Burna Boy surfaced with “Like to Party” in 2012.

D’banj signed with Kanye West’s GOOD Music in 2011, and “Oliver Twist” reached No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart in 2012. In London, DJ Abrantee is widely credited with popularising the label “afrobeats” around 2011 as a catch-all for this Nigerian and Ghanaian club music.

Mo’ Hits split in 2012. Don Jazzy founded Mavin Records, which became home to Tiwa Savage and, later, Rema and Ayra Starr. Olamide launched YBNL the same year and turned indigenous-language street rap into the biggest sound in the country, with hits like “Shakiti Bobo.” Ice Prince, Phyno and Flavour proved that rapping and singing in Yoruba, Igbo and Pidgin was a strength.

Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba” (2014), named after the Lagos district where he grew up, told a struggle-to-success story so plainly that Drake and Skepta jumped on a remix. In 2016 Wizkid featured on Drake’s One Dance, which spent ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and pushed Nigerian rhythm onto global playlists.

Davido’s “Fall” (2017) became a slow-burning international hit and was later certified Gold by the RIAA. Burna Boy’s “Ye” (2018) blew up worldwide, helped in part by listeners who reportedly streamed it while searching for Kanye West’s album of the same name. Yemi Alade’s “Johnny” (2014) became one of the most-watched African music videos of its time, and Tiwa Savage won Best African Act at the 2018 MTV EMAs, the first woman to take that prize.

By the close of the decade, a separate “street-pop” wave had emerged. Zlatan’s “Zanku” dance and the music around it ruled Lagos parties, while alté artists such as Odunsi (The Engine), Lady Donli and Cruel Santino built an experimental, fashion-forward scene. Santino’s “Rapid Fire” with Skepta became its signature track.

The 2020s: Grammys, stadiums and amapiano

Global recognition arrived fast. In March 2021, Burna Boy’s Twice as Tall won Best Global Music Album at the 63rd Grammys, and Wizkid won Best Music Video for Beyoncé’s “Brown Skin Girl,” on which he featured.

Wizkid’s Made in Lagos (October 2020) produced “Essence” with Tems. The Justin Bieber remix reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, a first for a Nigerian song. When Billboard launched its U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart in March 2022, the UK Official Afrobeats Chart (launched July 2020) and Nigeria’s own TurnTable Top 100 (launched 2020) were already tracking the boom closely.

Tems became the decade’s breakout voice. She featured on Future’s “Wait for U” alongside Drake, which went to No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2022 and won Best Melodic Rap Performance at the 2023 Grammys. She co-wrote Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. In February 2025 her “Love Me JeJe” won Best African Music Performance.

Rema’s “Calm Down,” given a remix with Selena Gomez, peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in 2023 and held the top of Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for most of that year. CKay’s “Love Nwantiti,” a 2019 song that went viral on TikTok in 2021, entered the Hot 100 and showed how a short clip could revive a song years after release.

Burna Boy sold out Madison Square Garden in April 2022 and, in June 2023, headlined London Stadium. His 2022 single “Last Last” built on a Toni Braxton sample to deliver a heartbreak anthem that charted on the Hot 100. In recent years, reports of Burna Boy at the Ballon d’Or presenting an award showed how far the culture had travelled beyond music.

How amapiano became part of Nigerian pop

Amapiano is South African, born in Gauteng townships in the mid-2010s, and Nigeria adopted it with real enthusiasm. Davido’s 2021 remix of Focalistic’s “Ke Star” signalled the crossover. By 2022, Asake’s “Sungba” and its Burna Boy remix had turned log drums and Yoruba-fuji vocals into the defining Lagos sound of the year.

The 2024 Grammy nominees for Best African Music Performance showed the shift. They included Asake and Olamide’s “Amapiano,” Burna Boy’s “City Boys,” Davido’s “Unavailable” and Ayra Starr’s “Rush,” although South Africa’s Tyla won with “Water.” Many Nigerian producers now treat amapiano elements as part of the standard toolkit for afrobeats music.

The new themes: emigration, protest and money

The lyrics changed along with the beats. Economic hardship and a wave of emigration produced a body of japa music, songs about leaving Nigeria for the UK, Canada or the US. The 2020 #EndSARS protests against police brutality drew in many artists, and the Yoruba phrase “soro soke” (speak up) became a rallying cry.

Business changed too. Master recordings became prized assets, majors opened Nigerian offices, and Universal Music Group acquired a controlling stake in Mavin in 2024. Since then, major-label money and global streaming have shaped which Nigerian artists get pushed abroad.

Gospel music in Nigeria

Gospel is one of the best-selling categories in Nigeria and is often overlooked by foreign coverage. The country’s churches, from Pentecostal megachurches to Cherubim and Seraphim congregations, are major music venues in their own right.

Sinach’s “Way Maker” is the scene’s biggest global export. Covered by Leeland, Michael W. Smith and countless church choirs, it became one of the most-sung worship songs worldwide.

Other key names include Panam Percy Paul from an earlier generation, the late Kefee with “Branama,” and current leaders Nathaniel Bassey, Frank Edwards, Mercy Chinwo, Moses Bliss, Dunsin Oyekan and Tope Alabi, whose Yoruba worship songs fill stadium crusades. Nigerian gospel borrows freely from highlife, afro-pop and even amapiano beats.

Hip-hop, from Trybesmen to Odumodublvck

Nigerian hip-hop started in the 1990s with acts such as Trybesmen and the lyrical rapper Modenine. M.I Abaga’s Talk About It era at Chocolate City made it commercially viable, and Ice Prince’s “Oleku” (2010) made it radio-friendly.

The real shift came when rappers switched to indigenous languages. Olamide in Yoruba and Phyno in Igbo proved that local-language rap could outsell English. Vector, Falz, Blaqbonez and A-Q kept the lyrical tradition alive.

In 2023, Odumodublvck’s “Declan Rice,” named after the English footballer, became a street and festival anthem. It led a grittier, drill-influenced Abuja-and-Lagos rap revival that pulls in younger listeners who find mainstream afro-pop too polished.

Nine genres compared

Genre	Roots	Defining artists	Signature track
Highlife	Ghanaian dance bands, Igbo guitar	Rex Lawson, Osita Osadebe, Flavour	“Sweet Mother”
Jùjú	Lagos palm-wine guitar	I.K. Dairo, Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Adé	“Synchro System”
Apala	Yoruba Muslim drumming	Haruna Ishola	Ishola’s 1960s recordings
Fuji	Ramadan were music	Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, K1 De Ultimate	Barrister’s fuji albums
Afrobeat	Highlife, jazz, funk	Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, Femi and Seun Kuti	“Water No Get Enemy”
Gospel	Church choirs, highlife	Sinach, Nathaniel Bassey, Mercy Chinwo	“Way Maker”
Hip-hop	US rap, local street slang	M.I Abaga, Olamide, Odumodublvck	“Declan Rice”
Afrobeats / afro-pop	Highlife, dancehall, R&B, fuji	Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy, Rema	“Essence”
Alté	Indie, R&B, rap, fashion culture	Odunsi (The Engine), Cruel Santino, Lady Donli	“Rapid Fire”

35 songs that defined Nigeria’s music

I built this list to cover every major turn in the story, from highlife to the current crop of Grammy winners. It is a listening path, not a popularity ranking. Play it in order and the history explains itself.

Era	Song	Artist	Why it matters
1960s	Baby Jowo	Victor Olaiya	Lagos dance-band highlife at its peak
1960s	Sawale	Cardinal Rex Lawson	Niger Delta highlife standard
1960s	Joromi	Victor Uwaifo	Put the guitar at the front
1970s	Ije Enu	Celestine Ukwu	Philosophical eastern highlife
1975	Water No Get Enemy	Fela Kuti & Africa 70	Afrobeat built on a proverb
1970s	Zombie	Fela Kuti & Africa 70	Satire that provoked the 1977 raid
1976	Sweet Mother	Prince Nico Mbarga & Rocafil Jazz	A continental Pidgin anthem
1970s	Fantastic Man	William Onyeabor	Synth-funk rediscovered decades later
1970s	Papa’s Land	Sonny Okosun	Rock-reggae liberation song
1983	Synchro System	King Sunny Adé	Jùjú’s international era
1984	Osondi Owendi	Osita Osadebe	Defining Igbo highlife
1980s	Send Down the Rain	Majek Fashek	Nigeria’s reggae high point
1980s	One Love	Onyeka Onwenu	Pop ballad that outlived its decade
1990s	Shakomo	The Remedies	Sound of the 1990s revival
2000s	Olufunmi	Styl-Plus	Wedding and radio staple
2004	African Queen	2face Idibia	Opened the afrobeats era
2007	Jailer	Asa	Soul-folk with global reach
2008	Gongo Aso	9ice	Yoruba proverbs back in pop
2008	Safe	M.I Abaga	Commercial Nigerian hip-hop arrives
2010	Holla at Your Boy	Wizkid	A future star’s debut
2011	Dami Duro	Davido	Davido’s breakout
2011	Oliver Twist	D’banj	UK top 10 in 2012
2014	Ojuelegba	Wizkid	Lagos street story, global remix
2014	Johnny	Yemi Alade	Pan-African video hit
2010s	Way Maker	Sinach	Worldwide worship anthem
2016	One Dance	Drake ft. Wizkid & Kyla	Ten weeks at Hot 100 No. 1
2017	Fall	Davido	RIAA Gold slow-burner
2018	Ye	Burna Boy	Burna’s global breakthrough
2019	Love Nwantiti	CKay	TikTok-era crossover
2019	Rapid Fire	Cruel Santino ft. Skepta	Alté’s flagship
2020	Essence	Wizkid ft. Tems	First Nigerian song in Hot 100 top 10 (remix)
2022	Last Last	Burna Boy	Heartbreak anthem on the Hot 100
2022	Calm Down	Rema	No. 3 on the Hot 100 (remix)
2022	Sungba	Asake	Fuji meets amapiano
2024	Love Me JeJe	Tems	Won Best African Music Performance at the 2025 Grammys

Global milestones for Nigerian music

Year	Artist	Milestone
1963	I.K. Dairo	MBE for services to music
1982	King Sunny Adé	Juju Music released internationally by Island Records, later earning a Grammy nomination
2012	D’banj	“Oliver Twist” reaches No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart
2016	Wizkid	Features on “One Dance,” 10 weeks at Hot 100 No. 1
2021	Burna Boy	Wins Best Global Music Album for Twice as Tall
2021	Wizkid	Wins Best Music Video for “Brown Skin Girl”
2021	Wizkid	“Essence” remix peaks at No. 9 on the Hot 100
2022	Burna Boy	Sells out Madison Square Garden
2023	Tems	Wins Best Melodic Rap Performance for “Wait for U”
2023	Rema	“Calm Down” remix peaks at No. 3 on the Hot 100
2023	Burna Boy	Headlines London Stadium
2025	Tems	Wins Best African Music Performance for “Love Me JeJe”

Reading Nigerian lyrics: a short glossary

Half the fun of Nigerian songs is the language switching. These are terms I hear constantly, explained in plain English.

Word or phrase	Language	Rough meaning
Wahala	Pidgin (from Hausa)	Trouble, stress
Japa	Yoruba slang	To flee; now, to emigrate
Sapa	Nigerian slang	Being broke
Gbedu	Yoruba	A drum; slang for a party banger
Owambe	Yoruba	A lavish, money-spraying party
Jeje	Yoruba	Gently, softly
Last last	Pidgin	In the end, eventually
Buga	Pidgin	To show off, to flex
Nwantiti	Igbo	Small, little
Odogwu	Igbo	A great man, a champion
Soro soke	Yoruba	Speak up

How I keep up with the latest Nigerian songs

New music arrives every week, and singles often peak within a month of release. That makes “latest Naija songs” lists out of date almost as soon as they are published, so I track the charts directly.

The TurnTable Top 100 is the most useful Nigerian chart because it blends streaming, radio and TV data from inside the country. The UK Official Afrobeats Chart shows what the diaspora is playing, and Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart shows which tracks are crossing into American listening. When a song climbs all three in the same week, it is usually the real deal.

For awards context, I follow the Headies, the Grammys’ African categories and the Trace and MTV-affiliated awards. I treat fan-voted categories with more caution than juried ones.

Why I skip MP3 download sites

The search results for this topic are crowded with blogs offering a free MP3 copy of every new song. Many of those sites do not have rights to the files, they run aggressive pop-up ads, and some push downloads that can carry malware. They also pay artists nothing.

Free, legal options exist. Audiomack and Boomplay, both widely used in Nigeria, offer free ad-supported tiers. Spotify and Apple Music have large Nigerian catalogues, and most artists post official videos and audio on YouTube. Every legal stream feeds the chart data above, so it helps the artists you play move up.

FAQ

What is the most popular music in Nigeria right now?

Afrobeats, in its many forms, dominates the charts. That includes afro-pop, street-pop and amapiano-influenced tracks. Gospel, fuji and hip-hop also have large audiences, and highlife remains a staple at weddings and parties, especially in the southeast.

What is the difference between Afrobeat and afrobeats?

Afrobeat is Fela Kuti’s 1970s fusion of funk, jazz and Yoruba rhythm, with long instrumental passages and political lyrics. Afrobeats is the broader 2000s-onward label for Nigerian and Ghanaian pop. It is shorter, more dance-led and borrows from R&B, dancehall, highlife and fuji.

Who are the biggest Nigerian artists?

By global reach, the current leaders are Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Tems, Rema, Asake and Ayra Starr. Historically, Fela Kuti, King Sunny Adé, Ebenezer Obey, Osita Osadebe and 2Baba are among the most important figures in Nigeria’s music.

What is traditional African music from Nigeria called?

There is no single name, because each region has its own traditions. Yoruba drum music (dùndún and bàtá), Igbo ogene and ekwe music, and Hausa praise singing with kakaki trumpets and goje fiddles are the best-known traditional forms. Apala, sakara and waka are early recorded genres that grew directly from them.

Is amapiano Nigerian?

No. Amapiano began in South Africa in the mid-2010s. Nigerian artists such as Asake, Davido and Olamide adopted its log-drum sound in the early 2020s and blended it with fuji and afrobeats, which is why many listeners now associate it with Lagos as well.

Has a Nigerian artist won a Grammy?

Yes. Burna Boy won Best Global Music Album in 2021 for Twice as Tall, and Wizkid won Best Music Video the same night for “Brown Skin Girl.” Tems won Best Melodic Rap Performance in 2023 for “Wait for U” and Best African Music Performance in 2025 for “Love Me JeJe.”

“One Dance” is Drake’s 2016 hit featuring Nigerian star Wizkid and British singer Kyla. It is built on a UK funky sample and has a West African bounce, and it became Drake’s first Billboard Hot 100 number one as a lead artist. Here is how the song came together, what it says, and why it matters to the African music story.

Last checked: October 29, 2026.

The Story Behind One Dance

Drake premiered “One Dance” on his OVO Sound Radio show on Beats 1 in April 2016. “Pop Style” premiered the same night. Both served as lead singles for Views, which arrived later that month.

The song’s foundation is older than you might think. It samples Kyla’s “Do You Mind,” specifically the Crazy Cousinz remix. That remix was a UK funky club staple in the late 2000s. Kyla’s chopped vocal gives the track its yearning hook.

UK funky itself borrows from house, soca and African percussion. So the sample already carried a diaspora groove before Drake touched it.

Who made the beat

The production credits explain a lot. Three producers are listed:

• Nineteen85, Drake’s longtime OVO collaborator from Toronto
• Wizkid, who also appears as a vocalist
• DJ Maphorisa, the South African producer from Mamelodi

Maphorisa’s involvement is a detail many listeners miss. He later became an Amapiano heavyweight, partly through his Scorpion Kings duo with Kabza De Small. On “One Dance,” you hear a producer who already understood how African rhythm moves a dance floor.

The Wizkid connection

Drake and Wizkid had already crossed paths in 2015. Drake jumped on the remix of Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba,” alongside Skepta. That remix put a Lagos street anthem in front of a global audience.

“One Dance” returned the favour on a much bigger stage. Wizkid’s vocal part is short. Still, his presence on the credits carried weight for a Nigerian artist in 2016.

The Afrobeats Roots, Explained

Call “One Dance” a hybrid. It sits where three sounds overlap.

Ingredient	Where you hear it
UK funky	The Kyla sample and its swung rhythm
Afrobeats	The bouncing, mid-tempo groove and Wizkid’s role
Dancehall	The relaxed, island-leaning feel Drake leaned into on Views

The tempo is slow and swaying, closer to a Lagos party record than a US rap single. The drums leave space. That restraint is a hallmark of modern Afrobeats music, which grew from Nigerian and Ghanaian pop, highlife and hip-hop.

You should keep one distinction in mind. Afrobeats, with an “s,” is the contemporary pop sound. Afrobeat, without it, is Fela Kuti’s political, horn-driven genre from the 1970s. “One Dance” belongs to the first family.

What the Song Means

The lyrics are simple on purpose. Drake asks for one more dance before he has to leave. He’s holding a drink, the night is ending, and he wants a moment of release.

Kyla’s hook repeats the plea for “one dance” like a mantra. It sounds hopeful and a little lonely. That tension suits Drake’s brand of moody club music.

There’s also a hint of strain under the fun. Drake mentions people pulling at him and pressure building. The dance becomes an escape from all of it.

The Chart Run

“One Dance” became one of the biggest songs of the decade. These are its headline achievements:

• Billboard Hot 100: Number one for 10 weeks in 2016, Drake’s first chart-topper as a lead artist
• UK Official Singles Chart: Number one for 15 consecutive weeks, among the longest runs in UK chart history
• Spotify: The first song to pass one billion streams on the platform, a milestone reported in late 2016
• Global reach: Topped charts in Canada and many other countries

One context note matters here. Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart did not exist until 2022. So “One Dance” never appeared on it, despite its influence on that market.

Why It Matters for African Music

Before 2016, African pop rarely sat at the top of US and UK charts. “One Dance” showed labels that an Afrobeats-leaning groove could dominate streaming worldwide.

The years that followed proved the point. Wizkid released “Come Closer” with Drake in 2017. Later came “Essence” with Tems, Burna Boy‘s Grammy win and Rema’s global run with “Calm Down.”

Drake kept returning to the well too. Tems appeared on “Fountains” from Certified Lover Boy in 2021. Each collaboration built on the door “One Dance” helped open.

You can argue about how much credit Drake deserves. Many in Lagos rightly point out that Afrobeats was rising on its own. Still, the song widened the audience at a crucial moment.

FAQ

Who sings on “One Dance”?

Drake leads the song. Wizkid features, and Kyla’s vocal comes from her sampled track “Do You Mind.”

Is “One Dance” an Afrobeats song?

It is partly Afrobeats. The track blends Afrobeats rhythm with UK funky and dancehall touches.

What song does “One Dance” sample?

It samples the Crazy Cousinz remix of Kyla’s “Do You Mind,” a UK funky club favourite.

Who produced “One Dance”?

Nineteen85, Wizkid and DJ Maphorisa are credited as producers.

How long was “One Dance” number one?

It spent 10 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. In the UK, it held the top spot for 15 straight weeks.

What album is “One Dance” on?

It appears on Drake’s fourth studio album, Views, released in April 2016.

Japa music is the loose name for Nigerian songs about emigrating, escaping hardship, or living abroad after you leave. Japa is Yoruba for “run” or “flee,” and it became everyday slang for relocating overseas during the migration wave of the early 2020s. It is a theme that runs through Afrobeats, street-hop, comedy and the diaspora sound, not a genre of its own.

Last updated: October 29, 2026

What “japa” actually means

In Yoruba, japa describes a quick getaway. You japa when you slip out of a situation before it catches you. For years, Lagos street slang used it the same way: running from trouble, a debt, or the police.

The meaning shifted when leaving Nigeria became a mass experience for young professionals. Doctors, nurses, software engineers and students started moving to the UK, Canada, the U.S., Ireland and Germany in large numbers. “He don japa” stopped meaning someone ran from a fight. It started meaning someone got a visa and quietly boarded a flight.

That second meaning is the one most people have in mind when they search for japa music. It carries mixed feelings. Japa can mean victory, a family’s sacrifice paying off. It can also mean grief, a friend group thinning out one farewell party at a time.

How the word got into the songs

Street music got there first. Naira Marley used the word as the title of his 2018 single “Japa,” in the slang sense of getting away fast. At the time, the track belonged to the Marlian street-hop moment. It was not yet a migration anthem. But it put the word in heavy rotation on radio and at parties across Lagos.

Then the country changed around the word. Three moments pushed japa from slang into national vocabulary.

1. October 2020. The #EndSARS protests against police brutality ended in the shooting at the Lekki toll gate on October 20. For many young Nigerians, that night broke trust in staying.
2. 2021 to 2022. The UK and Canada stood out as destinations, with student and skilled worker routes drawing huge numbers of Nigerian applicants. Japa became a constant topic in group chats, sermons and comedy skits.
3. May and June 2023. President Bola Tinubu announced the end of the fuel subsidy at his inauguration on May 29, 2023, and the naira’s exchange rates were unified weeks later. Prices jumped and savings shrank, and the push to leave grew stronger.

Policy abroad shaped the conversation too. From January 2024, the UK stopped most international students from bringing dependants, closing a route many Nigerian families had used. Back home, a 2023 bill in the House of Representatives proposed making newly trained doctors work in Nigeria for five years before getting a full licence. The proposal showed how worried officials had become about the “brain drain.”

Musicians did not need to write a song called “Japa” to respond to any of this. The theme leaked into verses about visas, cold weather, airport goodbyes, and money sent home.

The four moods of japa music

If you listen across Nigerian music from the last decade, songs about leaving tend to fall into four moods. Knowing them helps you hear the theme even when the word never appears.

1. The escape

These songs explain why people leave. They list the failures that make staying feel impossible: bad roads, no light, police harassment, salaries that disappear before month-end. The tone is angry or sarcastic, and the hook usually lands on something the whole country recognises.

2. The goodbye

These songs are softer. They deal with the mother at the airport, the friend you won’t see for years, the guilt of leaving people behind. Gospel and highlife-leaning songs often sit here, because faith and family carry most of the emotion.

3. The reality abroad

This is the diaspora side. Nigerians abroad sing about winter, shift work, care-home jobs, rent, and the gap between the “abroad” of the imagination and the one you actually live in. Comedy skits cover this mood even more than songs do.

4. The refusal

Some artists push back. They insist on staying, building, or returning. Their songs treat Lagos as the centre of the world rather than a place to escape. The global success of Afrobeats has made this position easier to hold, because Nigerian artists now tour the world from a Lagos base.

Songs that built the japa soundtrack

The table below mixes songs about leaving with the protest songs that explain why people leave. Japa music only makes sense next to both.

Song	Artist	Year	Why it belongs here
“Shuffering and Shmiling”	Fela Kuti	1978	The template for singing about how ordinary Nigerians suffer through hardship
“Jaga Jaga”	Eedris Abdulkareem	2004	A blunt hip-hop verdict on a broken country, still quoted today
“Ojuelegba”	Wizkid	2014	A hustle story from a Lagos neighbourhood that the diaspora adopted as a home song
“Wetin We Gain”	Victor AD	2018	A street anthem asking what years of struggle have actually paid
“This Is Nigeria”	Falz	2018	A Nigerian answer to Childish Gambino’s “This Is America,” listing the country’s ills
Life Is Eazi, Vol. 2: Lagos to London	Mr Eazi	2018	A project named for the most travelled route in the Nigerian diaspora
“Japa”	Naira Marley	2018	The best-known early song to carry the word as its title
“Monsters You Made”	Burna Boy feat. Chris Martin	2020	A furious look at how Nigeria’s leaders failed the young
“20 10 20”	Burna Boy	2020	Released in response to the Lekki toll gate shooting

A few notes on how to hear these songs.

“Ojuelegba” was never about leaving. Wizkid sings about where he started and the people who doubted him. But when Drake and Skepta joined a 2015 remix, the song became a bridge between Lagos and London. For many Nigerians abroad, it is the track that makes a Peckham party feel like home.

“This Is Nigeria” borrows the structure of Childish Gambino’s video and fills it with local references: police extortion, fraudulent pastors, unemployed graduates. It is the escape mood in its sharpest form.

“Wetin We Gain” is in Pidgin. The title asks, roughly, “what have we gained?” The question sits behind every japa decision.

“Monsters You Made” appears on Burna Boy‘s Twice as Tall, which won Best Global Music Album at the 2021 Grammys. The song argues that the anger of young Nigerians was manufactured by the people who failed them. Its release date, close to the #EndSARS protests, gave it extra weight.

Leaving-home songs before the word “japa”

Japa is new slang for a very old story. West African musicians have sung about migration for decades, and two older traditions are worth knowing.

Burger highlife

In the 1980s, many Ghanaians moved to Germany, especially Hamburg. Musicians in that community blended highlife with synths and drum machines, and the style became known as burger highlife, a nod to “Hamburger.” George Darko’s 1983 hit “Akoo Te Brofo” is the classic example. Daddy Lumba and Nana Acheampong formed the Lumba Brothers while living in Germany. This was diaspora music made by migrants, for migrants and for the folks back home.

If you want to trace that Ghanaian line forward to today’s rap scene, our profile of M.anifest is a good next step.

Ghana Must Go

In 1983, Nigeria expelled large numbers of West African migrants, many of them Ghanaian. The cheap woven bags people used to carry their belongings out became known as “Ghana Must Go” bags. The name stuck, and the bags are still sold across Nigeria under that name. It is a reminder that migration in this region has always flowed in more than one direction.

Fela’s era

Fela Kuti never wrote a “japa song,” but he documented the conditions that drive people out. Tracks like “Shuffering and Shmiling” and “Original Sufferhead” catalogue hunger, broken infrastructure and corrupt power. Modern protest songs from Falz and Burna Boy borrow directly from his playbook. Burna Boy in particular has made his debt to Fela part of his public identity.

How the diaspora changed the sound itself

The japa wave did more than inspire lyrics. It built an audience.

Millions of Nigerians and their children now live in London, Manchester, Houston, Toronto and Dublin. They stream Nigerian music, fill arenas, and create the demand that turned Afrobeats into a global industry. If you want the bigger picture of how the genre grew, our explainer on Afrobeats music covers its roots from highlife and Fela to today’s pop.

Two charts show how that audience got counted:

• UK Official Afrobeats Chart. The Official Charts Company launched it in 2020, a recognition of how much Afrobeats British listeners were streaming and buying.
• Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs. Billboard launched it in 2022, with Wizkid’s “Essence” among the songs that had already proven the American market.

Both charts reflect diaspora listening as much as mainstream crossover. When you see a Lagos release debut high in London, you are partly seeing japa in data form.

The diaspora also produced its own sound. UK Afroswing, led by British artists with West African roots, mixed Afrobeats rhythms with UK rap and grime. Artists born abroad to Nigerian parents now write about a kind of double belonging: Nigerian at home, British or American outside it. That identity is the long-term result of every japa story.

Japa beyond music: skits, memes and sermons

Songs are only one part of japa culture. Nigerian comedy skits on Instagram and YouTube have probably covered the theme more often than musicians have. Common bits include:

• The new arrival who complains about winter in a thick jacket indoors.
• The relative back home who assumes everyone abroad is rich.
• The “japa prayer” at church, where the pastor blesses passports and visa applications.
• The friend who suddenly stops posting, then reappears from an airport lounge.

These skits often use music as their soundtrack, which keeps certain songs tied to the theme. Pastors and gospel musicians have joined in too. Visa testimonies are a staple of Nigerian church services, and worship songs about breakthrough often get read as prayers for relocation. Sinach’s “Way Maker” is a song many listeners connect with exactly that kind of hope, even though its lyrics never mention leaving.

How to build your own japa music playlist

Most streaming services don’t have a japa category, so you’ll build your own. A good playlist tells a story, so arrange songs by mood rather than by year.

1. Open with the reasons. Start with protest tracks like “Jaga Jaga,” “This Is Nigeria” and “Wetin We Gain.” They set up the frustration.
2. Move to the breaking point. Add “Monsters You Made” and “20 10 20” for the #EndSARS era.
3. Add the departure. Put Naira Marley’s “Japa” here for the word itself, and any goodbye or gospel songs that matter to you.
4. Land abroad. Bring in Mr Eazi’s Lagos to London material and UK Afroswing.
5. Close with home. End on “Ojuelegba” or a song that celebrates Lagos. Japa playlists feel incomplete without the pull back home.

Search song titles and artist names directly rather than relying on autoplay. Algorithms tend to drift toward whatever is trending this week, which loses the thread.

Why japa music matters

Japa music works as a public diary of Nigeria’s last decade. It captures what young people felt about the country while they were deciding whether to stay. The songs are rarely neutral. Some cheer the escape, some mourn it, and some refuse it.

The theme also explains the economics of modern Afrobeats. The genre grew global partly because so many Nigerians went global first. Every sold-out show in London or Toronto has an audience built, in part, by people who japa’d. And as long as the push to leave continues, Nigerian artists will keep writing about it, with or without the word in the title.

FAQ

What does japa mean in Nigerian slang?

Japa comes from Yoruba and means to run or flee. In current Nigerian slang it mostly means emigrating, usually to the UK, Canada, the U.S. or Europe, in search of better pay, safety and opportunity.

Is japa music a genre?

No. Japa music is a theme that appears across many genres, including Afrobeats, street-hop, hip-hop, gospel and diaspora sounds like Afroswing. You won’t find a single japa beat or tempo.

What was the first japa song?

There’s no agreed first song, because Nigerian music has addressed leaving the country for decades. Naira Marley’s 2018 single “Japa” is the best-known early track to use the word as its title. It used the word in its older street sense, before the migration meaning took over.

Why do Nigerian artists sing about japa?

Leaving Nigeria became a common experience for young people in the early 2020s, driven by the economy, insecurity and the fallout from #EndSARS. Artists write about what their listeners live through. The large diaspora audience also rewards songs that speak to life abroad.

Is japa music related to Japanese music?

No. The similar spelling causes confusion in search results, but japa is a Yoruba word. Japa music refers only to Nigerian songs about emigration and has no connection to J-pop, J-rock or anime soundtracks.

Afrobeats music is the pop sound of West Africa, built in Lagos and Accra and carried worldwide by a generation of artists who grew up between highlife, hip-hop and dancehall. This guide explains what afrobeats is and where it came from, then ranks the 15 songs that best show how it grew from local club hits into global ones.

Last updated: October 29, 2026

What Is Afrobeats Music?

Afrobeats is an umbrella term for contemporary West African pop, mainly from Nigeria and Ghana. It covers a wide spread of styles. You will hear syncopated percussion, warm keys and guitar lines, melodic hooks sung in a mix of English, Nigerian Pidgin and local languages, and a strong lean toward dancing. A song can borrow from R&B, hip-hop, dancehall, house or South African amapiano and still sit comfortably under the label.

That flexibility is the point. Afrobeats was never one tightly defined genre with a rulebook. It started as a catch-all name for whatever was hot in Nigerian and Ghanaian clubs in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Many of its biggest artists push against the label for that reason. Burna Boy, for example, calls his own sound Afro-fusion.

You will also see people search for “afro music,” “afro beats music,” “africa beats” or “african beats.” Those phrases usually point to the same thing: the modern pop coming out of West Africa that you hear on playlists, at weddings and, increasingly, on mainstream radio in London, New York and Toronto. Strictly speaking, “African music” covers far more ground, from Congolese rumba to Ethiopian jazz to Tanzanian Bongo Flava. Afrobeats is one branch of that tree, though it is currently the loudest one.

What afrobeats sounds like

If you want to recognise afrobeats on first listen, focus on four things:

• The groove. Drum patterns are built around interlocking rhythms, often with a clave-like pulse, shakers and talking-drum or conga textures. The beat swings rather than marches.
• The tempo. Most songs sit in a relaxed mid-tempo range. They are made for whining and two-stepping rather than jumping.
• The vocals. Hooks are melodic and repetitive, and artists switch languages mid-line. Call-and-response, ad-libs and producer tags are everywhere.
• The production. Producers such as Sarz, Kel-P, P2J, London and Pheelz shaped the modern sound, layering crisp percussion with soft synths, guitar riffs borrowed from highlife and, since around 2021, the log drum bass of amapiano.

Where Did Afrobeats Come From?

The short answer is Nigeria and Ghana, with an important assist from London. The longer answer runs back almost a century, so a timeline helps.

1920s to 1960s: highlife and juju

Highlife grew up in Ghana’s coastal cities, mixing local rhythms with brass band music and guitar styles. E.T. Mensah, often called the King of Highlife, made it the sound of dance halls across West Africa in the 1950s. In Nigeria, juju music, later led by King Sunny Adé and Ebenezer Obey, built on Yoruba percussion and talking drums. These two styles give afrobeats its guitar lines and much of its rhythmic DNA.

Late 1960s and 1970s: Fela and Afrobeat

Fela Anikulapo Kuti spent time in the United States in 1969, absorbed funk and Black Power politics, and came home to Lagos to build Afrobeat with his band Africa 70 and drummer Tony Allen. Records like “Water No Get Enemy” and “Zombie” were long, hypnotic and furious. Fela’s influence on afrobeats is less about structure and more about attitude. He showed that Nigerian music could be proudly local and still feel world-class. There is a direct family link too: Burna Boy’s grandfather, the broadcaster Benson Idonije, was an early manager of Fela.

1990s: hip-hop, hiplife and the rise of Nigerian pop

In Ghana, Reggie Rockstone pioneered hiplife in the 1990s, rapping in Twi over beats that mixed hip-hop with highlife. In Nigeria, groups like Plantashun Boiz (featuring 2face Idibia) and The Remedies began making local pop with an R&B and hip-hop finish. Cheaper home studios and the spread of private radio and TV stations gave young producers somewhere to play their music.

2000s: the Nigerian pop boom

This is the decade the modern sound came together. 2face Idibia’s “African Queen” (2004) became a pan-African love song and even appeared in the 2006 Hollywood film Phat Girlz. P-Square, D’banj and producer Don Jazzy’s Mo’Hits Records turned Nigerian pop into a star system. Ghana’s scene grew alongside it through hiplife and later azonto, a dance craze that spread around 2011 and 2012.

Early 2010s: London names the sound

The word “afrobeats” took hold in the UK. The Ghanaian-British DJ Abrantee is widely credited with popularising it on London radio around 2011, as a simple label for the West African pop his listeners were requesting. D’banj’s “Oliver Twist” reached No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart in 2012, after he signed to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music. Fuse ODG pushed azonto into the UK Top 10 the following year. The diaspora had turned a regional sound into an exportable one.

2015 to today: streaming and the global era

Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba” remix with Drake and Skepta (2015), then Drake’s “One Dance” featuring Wizkid and Kyla (2016), put West African rhythm at the top of US and UK charts. Streaming did the rest. Fans in the diaspora no longer had to wait for imported CDs. The next section shows the milestones that followed.

How Afrobeats Went Global: Key Milestones

Year	Milestone	Why it mattered
2004	2face Idibia releases “African Queen”	First modern Nigerian pop song with true continental reach
2012	D’banj’s “Oliver Twist” hits No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart	Proved Nigerian pop could chart in Britain
2016	Drake’s “One Dance” featuring Wizkid tops charts in the US and UK	Introduced afrobeats rhythms to a mass global audience
2020	The Official Charts Company launches the UK Official Afrobeats Chart	First official national chart dedicated to the genre
2021	Burna Boy’s Twice as Tall wins Best Global Music Album at the Grammys	First major Grammy win for a Nigerian afrobeats album
2021	“Essence” remix with Justin Bieber peaks at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100	A Nigerian-led song in the US Top 10
2022	Billboard launches the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart	The biggest market starts tracking the genre separately
2022	Future’s “Wait for U” featuring Drake and Tems reaches No. 1 on the Hot 100	Tems later wins the Grammy for Best Melodic Rap Performance for it
2023	Burna Boy headlines London Stadium	Widely reported as the first African artist to headline a UK stadium
2023	Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” peaks at No. 3 on the Hot 100	The genre’s biggest US crossover single so far
2024	The Grammys introduce Best African Music Performance	The industry formally recognises the category

The milestones keep coming. They reach beyond music, too: our coverage of Burna Boy at the Ballon d’Or, where he was reportedly the first Nigerian artist to present an award, shows how far the culture has travelled from Lagos club nights.

How We Picked These 15 Afrobeats Songs

Ranking afrobeats is a fight waiting to happen, so here is how we did it. Each song was scored on four things:

1. Influence on the sound. Did producers and artists copy it? Did it open a new lane?
2. Reach beyond its home market. Chart runs in the UK and US, crossover remixes, and viral moments all count.
3. Staying power. Does it still fill dance floors years later?
4. Value as a starting point. Will it help a newcomer understand afrobeats?

We limited the list to one song per lead artist so you hear the full range of the genre. That means no Wizkid-heavy top five, even though he could fill one. Songs where an afrobeats artist only featured on a US or UK act’s record (like “One Dance” or “Wait for U”) are discussed above but left off the ranking.

The 15 Afrobeats Songs That Built the Sound, Ranked

1. Wizkid featuring Tems, “Essence” (2020): Top pick

If you play one afrobeats song to understand where the genre stands now, make it this one. “Essence” comes from Wizkid’s album Made in Lagos, released in October 2020, and it sounds almost nothing like the high-energy party records of the early 2010s. It is slow, hazy and patient, with a lazy guitar line and Tems’ smoky vocal floating over a soft groove.

That restraint is exactly why it travelled. American radio picked it up without a remix at first, and the 2021 version featuring Justin Bieber pushed it to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was widely reported as the first Nigerian-led song to reach the US Top 10. It also made Tems an international name almost overnight. “Essence” proved that afrobeats could win on mood and texture, and that lesson shaped the softer, R&B-leaning sound a lot of artists chased afterward.

2. Burna Boy, “Ye” (2018)

“Ye” is the song that turned Burna Boy from a respected Nigerian star into a global one. It appeared on his 2018 album Outside and became a street anthem in Lagos before spreading abroad. The title works as a Yoruba exclamation of surprise or exasperation, and the song captures a mood of hustling through hard times and still celebrating.

A famous side story helped its numbers. Kanye West released an album called Ye the same year, and many reports noted that confused listeners searching for Kanye were landing on Burna Boy instead. The accident turned out to be a bonus, since the record was strong enough on its own. “Ye” set up the run that led to African Giant, Twice as Tall and Burna Boy’s Grammy win.

3. Wizkid, “Ojuelegba” (2014)

Ojuelegba is a busy, chaotic Lagos district, and Wizkid’s song about it is a love letter to where he started. Released on his 2014 album Ayo, it describes his early struggles and the people who believed in him. It is one of the most autobiographical songs in the afrobeats canon.

The 2015 remix with Drake and Skepta mattered enormously. It linked Lagos, Toronto and London in one record, and it led directly to Wizkid’s feature on “One Dance” a year later. If you want to understand why the diaspora is central to afrobeats history, this song shows you the bridge being built in real time.

4. D’banj, “Oliver Twist” (2012)

This is a loud, cheeky party record full of pop-culture name-drops, and it gave Nigerian pop its first serious UK chart moment. “Oliver Twist” peaked at No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart in 2012, at a time when D’banj had just signed to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music.

Musically, it is a time capsule of the Mo’Hits era: bouncy, brash and built around a hook you can learn in one listen. It is not the most sophisticated song on this list. What earns it the spot is that it showed British record labels and radio programmers that this sound could sell outside the diaspora.

5. 2face Idibia, “African Queen” (2004)

Before streaming, before London named the genre, there was “African Queen.” 2face Idibia’s acoustic love song from his album Face 2 Face became one of the most played records across Africa in the mid-2000s and turned up on the soundtrack of the 2006 American film Phat Girlz.

It is gentle, with a simple guitar part and an earnest vocal, and it holds up beautifully. For many listeners on the continent, this was the moment Nigerian pop stopped imitating American R&B and started competing with it. Play it if you want to hear the genre’s roots before the drums got heavier.

6. Rema and Selena Gomez, “Calm Down” (2022)

Rema released “Calm Down” in early 2022, and it appeared on his debut album Rave & Roses on Mavin Records. The remix with Selena Gomez that August took it to a level no afrobeats single had reached before. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and enjoyed a record-setting run at No. 1 on Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart.

The song is a flirtation built on an easy, rolling beat and a melody so catchy it became a TikTok staple. Some longtime fans see it as afrobeats sanded down for global pop. Others hear proof that Rema’s “Afrorave” style can sit next to anything on mainstream radio. Either way, it is the biggest crossover single the genre has produced so far.

7. Burna Boy, “Last Last” (2022)

We broke our one-song-per-artist rule here, and it was a deliberate call. “Last Last” deserves its place because it shows a completely different side of Burna Boy from “Ye.” Released in May 2022 ahead of his album Love, Damini, it builds around a sample of Toni Braxton’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough” and turns heartbreak into a crowd-pleasing anthem.

“Last last” is Pidgin for “in the end” or “when all is said and done,” and the song’s resigned, slightly drunk attitude struck a nerve with fans worldwide. It shows how afrobeats producers flip American R&B into something new. It also became one of Burna Boy’s most streamed songs and a fixture at his stadium shows.

8. Davido, “Fall” (2017)

“Fall” was not an instant smash. It grew slowly, month after month, until it became one of the most enduring afrobeats songs of the decade, with its video passing remarkable view counts on YouTube for a Nigerian pop release. That slow-burn story matters, because it showed that afrobeats songs could build audiences abroad through streaming alone, with no big American feature attached.

The track is light and romantic, built on a Kiddominant production with a smooth, looping guitar figure. Davido sings about falling for someone despite his better judgement, and the restraint suits him. If you only know Davido for his louder party records, start here.

9. CKay, “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” (2019)

CKay first released “Love Nwantiti” on his 2019 EP CKay the First. Nothing much happened for a while. Then, in 2021, a sped-up version went viral on TikTok, and remixes multiplied across the world, from Ghana to North Africa to Europe. It turned into one of the most streamed African songs of that year.

“Nwantiti” is an Igbo word that is usually translated as “small” or “little,” and the song is a tender, slightly obsessive love confession. Its story is a lesson in how afrobeats breaks out today. An old song can find a second life years later if the right clip catches fire.

10. Asake featuring Burna Boy, “Sungba (Remix)” (2022)

Asake changed the sound of Lagos in 2022. Signed to Olamide’s YBNL label, he arrived with a style that mixed Yoruba street chants, gospel-style choral backing vocals and the log drum bass of South African amapiano. “Sungba” was the record that broke him, and the Burna Boy remix sealed it.

His debut album Mr. Money with the Vibe (September 2022) followed and made him one of the fastest-rising African artists of that period. Asake matters to this list because he showed how fully afrobeats could absorb amapiano without losing its Nigerian identity. Play the remix loud and you will hear why every Lagos producer seemed to chase his sound for the next two years.

11. Davido featuring Musa Keys, “Unavailable” (2023)

After a painful period in his personal life, Davido returned in March 2023 with the album Timeless, and “Unavailable” became its runaway hit. The feature from South African vocalist Musa Keys is a big part of the appeal. The song is a straight Nigeria-meets-South-Africa collaboration, with amapiano log drums under Davido’s confident hook about being too busy and too successful to be bothered.

It belongs here as the clearest example of the pan-African sound that defined the early 2020s. Lagos and Johannesburg had been influencing each other for years. “Unavailable” put the two cities in one chorus.

12. Victony, “Soweto” (2022)

Victony’s “Soweto” first appeared on his 2022 EP Outlaw, and the 2023 remix with Don Toliver, Rema and producer Tempoe gave it a much wider audience. The title nods to the famous South African township, and the song’s breezy, sensual groove leans into that cross-continental feel.

Victony’s story adds weight to the song. He survived a serious car crash in 2021 and came back with some of the most distinctive vocals in Nigerian pop, sitting somewhere between afrobeats, R&B and alté. “Soweto” is a good entry point if you like the softer side of the genre that “Essence” opened up.

13. Black Sherif, “Kwaku the Traveller” (2022)

Ghana’s contribution to afrobeats often gets flattened into Nigeria’s story, and Black Sherif is a good corrective. “Kwaku the Traveller” is moodier and more personal than most afrobeats hits, blending drill-influenced flows, highlife melody and lyrics in Twi and English about struggle and restlessness. Kwaku is the Akan day name for a boy born on a Wednesday, which gives the title a personal, grounded feel.

The song became a huge hit across West Africa and the diaspora in 2022 and later appeared on his debut album The Villain I Never Was. It shows where Ghanaian pop sits now: proud of its roots, emotionally raw and very much its own thing.

14. Ayra Starr, “Rush” (2022)

Ayra Starr broke out on Mavin Records as one of the most confident young voices in the genre, and “Rush” is her signature song. Taken from her album 19 & Dangerous (2022), it is a bright, defiant record about shrugging off haters and enjoying her success.

Its importance is partly about representation. Afrobeats has often been male-dominated at the top, even with pioneers like Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade leading the way. “Rush” became an anthem for a younger generation of fans, and Ayra Starr went on to become one of the genre’s most visible global ambassadors.

15. Fuse ODG, “Antenna” (2013)

“Antenna” brought Ghana’s azonto dance craze into the UK Top 10. Fuse ODG, a London-born artist of Ghanaian heritage, built the song around the dance’s playful, mime-like moves, and it reached No. 7 on the UK Singles Chart in 2013.

It sounds dated next to “Essence” or “Unavailable,” and that is part of the reason to hear it. “Antenna” captures the moment when the diaspora was actively selling West African pop to British audiences, a step that made everything after it easier.

Quick-Reference Comparison Table

#	Song	Artist(s)	Year	Country	Best for
1	Essence	Wizkid ft. Tems	2020	Nigeria	Understanding the modern, mellow sound
2	Ye	Burna Boy	2018	Nigeria	Burna Boy’s breakout moment
3	Ojuelegba	Wizkid	2014	Nigeria	The Lagos-to-diaspora bridge
4	Oliver Twist	D’banj	2012	Nigeria	Early UK crossover energy
5	African Queen	2face Idibia	2004	Nigeria	The genre’s acoustic roots
6	Calm Down	Rema and Selena Gomez	2022	Nigeria	The biggest US crossover
7	Last Last	Burna Boy	2022	Nigeria	Sampling and heartbreak
8	Fall	Davido	2017	Nigeria	Slow-burn streaming success
9	Love Nwantiti	CKay	2019	Nigeria	The TikTok era
10	Sungba (Remix)	Asake ft. Burna Boy	2022	Nigeria	Afrobeats meets amapiano
11	Unavailable	Davido ft. Musa Keys	2023	Nigeria and South Africa	Pan-African collaboration
12	Soweto	Victony	2022	Nigeria	Soft, R&B-leaning vibes
13	Kwaku the Traveller	Black Sherif	2022	Ghana	Ghana’s modern edge
14	Rush	Ayra Starr	2022	Nigeria	A new generation’s anthem
15	Antenna	Fuse ODG	2013	UK and Ghana	The azonto years

Featured Artists: The Names You Need to Know

The songs above give you the sound. These are the artists who keep shaping it, grouped by what they bring.

The big three

Wizkid is the genre’s quiet giant. He has been a star since his 2011 debut Superstar on Banky W’s Empire Mates Entertainment and has steadily moved toward a softer, more global sound. He also shared a Grammy for Best Music Video for Beyoncé’s “Brown Skin Girl.”

Burna Boy is the most decorated and the most outspoken. His Grammy win for Twice as Tall, his stadium headline shows and his insistence on calling his music Afro-fusion make him the genre’s most visible global figure.

Davido is the hit-maker and the crowd-mover. His energy, his DMW label and his collaborations across the continent have made him one of afrobeats’ most consistent stars for over a decade.

The label builders and the new wave

Olamide deserves special mention. He built his career rapping in Yoruba and Pidgin, and his YBNL label has launched or boosted artists including Lil Kesh, Fireboy DML and Asake. Few people have done more to keep street culture at the centre of Nigerian pop.

Asake, Rema, Ayra Starr, Victony, Fireboy DML and Omah Lay lead the generation that came up in the streaming era. Each has a distinct lane, from Asake’s choral amapiano fusion to Omah Lay’s moody, intimate records.

Tems is in a category of her own. Her low, textured voice made “Essence” and “Wait for U” what they are, and in 2025 she won the Grammy for Best African Music Performance with “Love Me JeJe.”

Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade opened doors for women in the genre during the 2010s and remain major names.

Ghana’s leaders

Sarkodie, one of Africa’s most respected rappers, along with Stonebwoy, Shatta Wale, King Promise, Black Sherif and the genre-bending Amaarae show that Ghana’s scene stands on its own. Stonebwoy and Shatta Wale also bring a heavy dancehall influence, which links Ghana’s pop scene directly to Jamaica.

Afrobeats vs Amapiano, Dancehall, Afro-House and More

A lot of confusion around “African beats” comes from mixing up genres that now share stages, playlists and features. Here is how they differ.

Genre	Home base	Signature feature	How it connects to afrobeats
Afrobeats	Nigeria and Ghana	Syncopated percussion, melodic hooks, Pidgin vocals	The pop umbrella itself
Afrobeat	Nigeria (1970s)	Long jazz-funk jams, political lyrics	Spiritual ancestor; frequent samples
Amapiano	South Africa	Log drum bass, jazzy keys, slow build	Heavily absorbed by Lagos producers since around 2021
Dancehall	Jamaica	Riddims, toasting vocals	Strong influence on Burna Boy, Patoranking and Ghanaian stars
Afro-house	South Africa and beyond	Four-on-the-floor house beat, deep grooves	Shares DJs and festivals; often remixes afrobeats hits
Gqom	Durban, South Africa	Dark, broken, heavy kicks	Occasional influence, mostly a separate scene
Bongo Flava	Tanzania	Swahili vocals, taarab and hip-hop roots	East African cousin; artists like Diamond Platnumz collaborate across scenes

The biggest recent shift is the fusion of afrobeats and amapiano. You will sometimes hear it called “Afropiano.” Asake, Davido’s “Unavailable” and countless Lagos club records leaned on the South African log drum between 2022 and 2024. Purists in Johannesburg sometimes bristle at Nigerian artists taking credit for the sound. The healthiest version of the trend, though, is direct collaboration, with South African producers and vocalists credited and paid properly.

House music is the other interesting crossover. Afro-house DJs from South Africa, Europe and the US now regularly remix afrobeats vocals into longer, club-focused tracks. That has pulled the genre into dance festivals that would never have booked it a decade ago.

The Language of Afrobeats: Words You Will Hear

Part of afrobeats’ charm is the language. Most songs mix English with Nigerian Pidgin and Yoruba, Igbo, Twi or other local languages. You do not need to understand every word to enjoy the music, but a few common terms will make lyrics click.

• Wahala: trouble or stress, used everywhere from love songs to party records.
• Omo: literally “child” in Yoruba, but used as an exclamation, a bit like “wow” or “man.”
• Gbedu: a party jam or a great beat.
• Shayo: drinking, usually in a party context.
• Japa: to leave Nigeria for a life abroad, a theme in many recent songs.
• Buga: to show off or flex, made famous by Kizz Daniel and Tekno’s 2022 hit of the same name.
• Last last: in the end, as in Burna Boy’s song.
• E choke: something so impressive it overwhelms you.

You will also hear repeated references to Lagos neighbourhoods such as Ojuelegba, Surulere and Lekki. Those place names carry class and hustle meanings that local fans pick up instantly. A song shouting out a mainland area like Ojuelegba usually signals a street-level, came-from-nothing story. Lekki and Victoria Island references lean toward wealth and nightlife.

How to Start Listening to Afrobeats

If you are new, a structured path beats a random playlist. Try this order:

1. Start with the modern core. “Essence,” “Calm Down,” “Last Last” and “Rush” show you the sound as it stands now.
2. Go back to the roots. Play “African Queen,” “Oliver Twist” and “Ojuelegba” to hear how the genre grew.
3. Hear the ancestors. Put on a full Fela Kuti record such as Zombie. Give it the full running time. The long, patient build is the point.
4. Explore the fusions. Follow Asake into amapiano, Black Sherif into Ghanaian drill and highlife, and Victony into R&B and alté.
5. Watch the charts. The UK Official Afrobeats Chart, Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart and Nigeria’s TurnTable Top 100 each give you a weekly snapshot. TurnTable is the best guide to what is actually big in Lagos, which often differs from what is big in London or New York.

Pay attention to albums, too. Made in Lagos, African Giant, Mr. Money with the Vibe, Timeless and 19 & Dangerous each hold together as full projects. That has not always been true in a genre that grew up on singles.

Why Afrobeats Keeps Growing

A few forces explain why afrobeats music has spread so far and so fast.

The diaspora. Large Nigerian and Ghanaian communities in the UK, US, Canada and across Europe built the early audience. They pushed DJs to play the music, filled concert halls and turned local hits into diaspora anthems.

Streaming and social video. Spotify, Apple Music, Audiomack, Boomplay and especially TikTok removed the old barriers of distribution. “Love Nwantiti” became a hit two years after its release because a clip went viral, not because a label pushed it.

Collaboration. Drake, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Ed Sheeran and others have worked with afrobeats artists. Each of those records sends new listeners back to the source.

Investment. Major labels have opened African offices and signed homegrown talent, and festivals like Afro Nation have built events around the sound. That money brings pressure, too. Critics worry about artists diluting their sound for Western playlists. For now, though, the biggest records still come from artists who sound unmistakably like Lagos or Accra.

Afrobeats has already outgrown the label “world music,” which it never fit. The next chapter will likely be shaped by deeper links with East and Southern Africa, more women at the top, and a fight over who gets credit and royalties as the sound keeps travelling.

FAQ

What is afrobeats in simple terms?

Afrobeats is modern pop music from West Africa, mainly Nigeria and Ghana. It mixes local rhythms and languages with influences from hip-hop, R&B, dancehall and house, and it is built for dancing.

Is afrobeats the same as Afrobeat?

No. Afrobeat is the 1970s genre created by Fela Kuti and Tony Allen, with long tracks, live bands and political lyrics. Afrobeats is a much newer pop umbrella that took shape in the 2000s and was popularised as a term in London in the early 2010s.

Who started afrobeats?

No single person started it. Afrobeats grew out of Nigerian pop artists like 2face Idibia, P-Square and D’banj, producers like Don Jazzy, Ghanaian hiplife and azonto acts, and diaspora DJs. The DJ Abrantee is widely credited with popularising the name on London radio around 2011.

Who is the biggest afrobeats artist?

Burna Boy, Wizkid and Davido are the genre’s three biggest stars, with Burna Boy holding the most major awards and Wizkid the most influential catalogue. Among newer artists, Rema, Tems, Asake and Ayra Starr have the widest global reach.

Is amapiano part of afrobeats?

No. Amapiano is a South African genre built on log drum bass and jazzy keys. Many Nigerian afrobeats artists have blended it into their songs since around 2021, but it has its own history, artists and scene in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

What is the best afrobeats song to start with?

Start with Wizkid and Tems’ “Essence.” It captures the genre’s modern sound, it was a major US hit, and it leads naturally into the artists and albums covered above.