Category: Charts & Awards

Ayra Starr and Zayn’s “Heaven Baby” spends a second straight week at No. 1 on the UK Official Afrobeats Chart, and Asake is on two of the top three songs. Below is everything I could confirm from the chart publishers for the week of October 26 to November 1, 2026, along with the gaps I couldn’t fill yet and why.

UK Official Afrobeats Chart: top 10 (25 to 31 October 2026)

The Official Charts Company calls this list the UK’s biggest Afrobeats songs of the week based on sales and streams across a seven day period, and this edition covers 25 October 2026 – 31 October 2026. It’s a 20-place chart. Billboard has noted that the Official Charts Company launched it two years before Billboard’s 50-position U.S. list.

Position	Song	Artist	Last week
1	Heaven Baby	Ayra Starr ft. Zayn	1
2	Ikebe 3000	Blaqbonez ft. Asake	2
3	Gratitude	Asake	3
4	That Girl	Tyla	11
5	B4 B4	Davido, Mayorkun & Fola	4
6	Coachella	NO11 & Gabzy	8

Positions 7 to 10 didn’t load cleanly from the Official Charts page when I checked, so I’ve left them out. I’m not going to guess. Further down the 20, these placings are confirmed:

Position	Song	Artist	Last week
11	Comfort	Mr Eazi & Moliy	12
13	Coming Home	Odeal ft. Jorja Smith	14
19	Sexy Nana	Aya Nakamura & La Rvfleuze	19

The stories behind the biggest moves

“Heaven Baby” holds the throne in week 10

Ayra Starr’s duet with Zayn is at No. 1 again, with the listing showing LW: 1, Peak: 1, Weeks: 10. It got to the top slowly. On the chart for 11 to 17 October, the song was at No. 3 with LW: 3, Peak: 2, Weeks: 8, while Victony’s “Slick” was No. 1 for a 13th week.

The next week it went from 3 to 1. The 18 to 24 October listing shows “Heaven Baby” with LW: 3, Peak: 1, Weeks: 9. I think that matters. A song that climbs to No. 1 in its ninth week is being carried by repeat plays, not a first-week rush, and that kind of hit usually stays up longer.

Asake is everywhere, again

Asake leads “Gratitude” at No. 3 and features on Blaqbonez’s “Ikebe 3000” at No. 2. “Gratitude” has been on the chart a long time, with LW: 3, Peak: 3, Weeks: 13.

Back home, the song was even bigger. TurnTable’s headline at the time said Asake’s “Gratitude” debuts at No.1 on This Week’s Nigeria Top 100, Sarz & BNXN’s “Back Outside” is the only non-Asake Entry in the Top Ten. That’s nine of the top 10 for one artist in Nigeria.

“Ikebe 3000” has been steady from the start. It debuted at No. 2 on the 11 October chart and is still at No. 2 three weeks later.

Tyla’s “That Girl” bounces back into the top five

The biggest climb I could confirm this week is Tyla’s “That Girl”, now at No. 4. On the 18 to 24 October chart it was at No. 11 with LW: 10, Peak: 2, Weeks: 12. A song three months old moving back up this far suggests a fresh burst of playlisting or social media activity. I haven’t seen a confirmed reason yet.

Fola is having a strong autumn

“B4 B4” by Davido, Mayorkun and Fola is at No. 5. The listing shows LW: 4, Peak: 2, Weeks: 12. A week earlier, Fola also had a second top-10 song when “2AM in Toronto” with Davido debuted at No. 6. Few artists on the chart have two songs moving at once right now.

Mr Eazi and Moliy hit a new peak

“Comfort” moved up one place to No. 11, which is its best position so far. The listing shows LW: 12, Peak: 11, Weeks: 3. It’s a small move. But the song has gone up every week since it entered at No. 13 on the 11 October chart.

Older hits holding on

Odeal and Jorja Smith’s “Coming Home” sits at No. 13 with LW: 14, Peak: 4, Weeks: 12. That’s three months on the chart for a slow, soulful song, which tells me UK listeners keep coming back to it.

That French connection is easy to check. On the 18 to 24 October chart, Mauvais Djo’s “Pile” had LW: 6, Peak: 2, Weeks: 13, and his “Maladie” was in the top 10 as well. “Sexy Nana” holds at No. 19 with LW: 19, Peak: 13, Weeks: 12.

Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs: this week’s top 10 not confirmed

Billboard’s chart is updated every Tuesday, so the edition dated October 31 should already be out. I couldn’t get its top 10 from Billboard or a reliable recap before publishing, so I’m not printing a table for it.

For background, this is a 50-place chart. Billboard says it ranks songs based a formula blending U.S. streaming and sales totals. The latest full snapshot I could verify is for the week ending September 12, 2026. Pulse Ghana reported that Tyla’s “Water” was still No. 1 and has now spent an extraordinary 158 weeks on the chart.

That same week, Asake had the most songs in the U.S. top 20, appearing on eight entries either as a lead or featured artiste. Victony was also doing well. Billboard reported that his album STARLIFE produced eight debuts while “Slick” holds at No. 2 for a third consecutive week. I’ll add this week’s U.S. top 10 once it’s confirmed.

Nigeria’s TurnTable Top 100: not confirmed yet

I couldn’t confirm this week’s Official Nigeria Top 100 from TurnTable, so there’s no table here either. The way the chart works is useful to know. Its tracking week for the two components (airplay and streaming) runs from Friday to Thursday. Radio counts heavily, which is why a song can be huge on UK streaming and still trail at home.

Earlier in 2026, TurnTable reported a long run near the top for Young Jonn, with headlines saying Young Jonn’s “Elumelu” Holds at No. 2 over several weeks. Once this week’s Nigeria chart is confirmed, I’ll compare it with the UK list. Seeing what Lagos plays against what London streams is the most useful part of tracking both.

South African Amapiano charts

I couldn’t find a South African Amapiano chart from a chart publisher for this week that I could verify, so I’m not running one. I’d rather leave the section empty than fill it with playlist rankings dressed up as an official chart.

What these African music charts tell me this week

My reading of this week’s charts:

• Ayra Starr is the UK story. Her climb to No. 1 took weeks, and that tends to mean a song stays there for a while.
• Asake is the hardest artist to avoid. He’s on two UK top-three songs, he had nine of Nigeria’s top 10 with his “Gratitude” run, and he had eight U.S. top-20 entries in September.
• Fola is quietly building. He’s on two songs that reached the top 10 within a fortnight, both with Davido.
• The UK chart is wider than Nigeria. French Afro acts and UK-based artists such as Odeal keep showing up, which suits how broad Afrobeats music has become.

What happens next

The next UK chart covers 1 to 7 November, and the question is whether “Ikebe 3000” finally gets past “Heaven Baby” after three weeks at No. 2. In the U.S., Billboard’s next update arrives on Tuesday.

Looking a little further out, December releases usually start to move the charts as the diaspora heads home for Detty December. I’d expect at least one big Lagos single to be released with that in mind. Awards season adds pressure too. Last cycle, Ayra Starr and Wizkid’s “Gimme Dat” was nominated for Best African Music Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards.

FAQ

What is No. 1 on the UK Afrobeats chart this week?

“Heaven Baby” by Ayra Starr featuring Zayn. It’s the song’s second week at No. 1 and its 10th week on the chart.

Which artist has the most top-three songs this week?

Asake. He leads “Gratitude” at No. 3 and features on Blaqbonez’s “Ikebe 3000” at No. 2.

How many songs are on each chart?

The UK Official Afrobeats Chart has 20 places. Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart ranks the 50 most popular songs every week. TurnTable’s Nigeria chart has 100.

Why is there no Billboard or TurnTable top 10 table here?

I only publish chart positions I can confirm from the chart publishers or reliable reports of their data. When I checked on October 30, 2026, I couldn’t verify this week’s top 10 for either chart, so I left them out instead of guessing.

When do the charts update?

Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats chart updates on Tuesdays. TurnTable’s tracking week runs Friday to Thursday. The UK chart covers a seven-day period, and the next edition is for 1 to 7 November.

The biggest African music awards are The Headies (Nigeria), the South African Music Awards, AFRIMA (pan-African), the Telecel Ghana Music Awards and the Trace Awards. The Grammys and the BET Awards also have categories for African artists. Most of these shows don’t run on fixed dates, so below we list when each one usually happens, what the main prizes are and who won the top award most recently. Last checked: October 30, 2026.

The African music awards calendar at a glance

Award	Country	Usually held	Main categories	Latest top-prize winner
The Headies	Nigeria (18th edition in Toronto)	Varies; 18th set for late October 2026	Song of the Year, Afrobeats Single, Best Male and Female Artiste, Next Rated	18th edition results not confirmed as of Oct 30, 2026; 17th Song of the Year went to Asake, “Lonely at the Top” (April 2025)
South African Music Awards (SAMAs)	South Africa	Mid to late year; SAMA32 was in August 2026	Album of the Year, Female and Male Artist, genre albums	HLE, The Ground We’re On (Album of the Year, 2026)
AFRIMA	Pan-African, with the African Union	Not annual; 9th was January 2026, 10th is May 2027	Continental and regional artist, song and producer prizes	Not confirmed as of Oct 30, 2026
Telecel Ghana Music Awards	Ghana	Usually May, Accra	Artiste of the Year, Album/EP, Record of the Year	Black Sherif (Artiste of the Year, 2026)
Trace Awards	Pan-African	Irregular	Song, artist and regional prizes	Not confirmed as of Oct 30, 2026
MTV Africa Music Awards	Pan-African	Dormant	Not active	No ceremony announced
Grammys: Best African Music Performance	United States	Usually February	One song category	Tyla, “Push 2 Start” (2026)
BET Awards: Best International Act	United States	Usually June	Best International Act	Not confirmed as of Oct 30, 2026

The Headies (Nigeria)

The Headies are Nigeria’s best-known music awards. The ceremony was established in 2006 and originally called the Hip Hop World Awards. Our feature The Headies Explained covers the history in more depth. Here we focus on where the show stands now.

The 17th edition, billed as The Headies 2024, took place on 27 April 2025 in Victoria Island, Lagos. At that show, Tems’ “Burning” won Best Recording of the Year, while Asake’s “Lonely at the Top” was named Song of the Year.

The 18th edition moved abroad. Organisers announced that the ceremony would be hosted in Toronto, Canada, with the theme “Africa to the World,” also recognising African diaspora talent. Fola led the nominations. The nominees list, unveiled on August 25, gave Fola 10 nominations, with Omah Lay, Mavo and Wizkid close behind. Congolese star Awilo Longomba was named for the Hall of Fame honour.

Reports disagree on the exact date. Most put the show on October 23, while another outlet listed October 25 in Toronto. We have not yet confirmed the full winners list from official sources, so we have left it out.

How Headies winners are chosen

The Headies Academy organises the ceremony and honours achievements in Nigerian and African music during a set eligibility period. Those windows can be long. For 2026, eligibility covered music released between August 1, 2024, and April 30, 2026. That explains why some songs are still collecting awards long after they left the charts. Viewers’ Choice is the category the public influences most directly.

South African Music Awards (SAMAs)

The SAMAs are run by the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA). Most prizes go to albums in specific genres, so amapiano, maskandi, gqom, gospel and Afrikaans pop all have their own categories.

SAMA32 was a two-night show. It was held at the Sun City Superbowl on 15 August under the theme “The Future Sounds Like Now Now”. HLE and Kabza De Small were the leading winners, each taking three awards. HLE won Album of the Year for The Ground We’re On and also took Female Artist of the Year. Mzukulu won Male Artist of the Year and Best Maskandi Album for Ng’Funa Intozami.

For amapiano fans, Kabza De Small won Best Amapiano Album for Bab’Motha, while DJ Maphorisa and Xduppy won Most Streamed Song of the Year for Ngomoya. Tyla received the AfriPure International Achievement Award, and Oskido was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The timing changes from year to year. SAMA 30 took place on 2 November 2024, while SAMA32 was held in mid-August. At SAMA31, Goldmax took Male Artist of the Year and Play At Your Own Risk won Album of the Year.

AFRIMA (All Africa Music Awards)

AFRIMA is the main continental award run with a political partner. It was established in 2014 by the International Committee of AFRIMA in partnership with the African Union. It covers the whole continent, with regional categories that give artists from North, Central, East and Southern Africa a fair hearing.

The 9th AFRIMA was held from January 7 to 11, 2026, in Lagos, Nigeria. That put it straight after the Lagos festive season. If you are planning a Detty December trip to Lagos, it is worth checking whether a later AFRIMA edition falls inside your dates.

The build-up to the 10th edition has taken the team around the continent. There were activations in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire before a Casablanca visit. The 10th AFRIMA global calendar was then unveiled in Los Angeles on September 20, 2026.

How AFRIMA entries and judging work

This is the one award on our list where artists submit their own work. The entry portal opened on October 11, 2026 and runs until January 10, 2027, and it is open to artists, songwriters and producers. Interest is high: the 9th edition received a record 10,717 submissions. An International Jury with members from each region then judges the entries. Kenya’s Lucy Ilado represents Eastern Africa, and our guide to Kenyan music explains why that region needs a voice on the panel. The 10th AFRIMA is scheduled for May 18–23, 2027, in Lagos.

Telecel Ghana Music Awards

Ghana’s main music awards have the most predictable schedule on this list. The last two editions were held on the second Saturday of May at the same venue. The 2026 edition was held on 9 May 2026 at the Grand Arena of the Accra International Conference Centre, recognising work from 2025. The 2025 show was held on 10 May 2025 at the same arena. TV3 broadcasts it in Ghana and Akwaaba Magic shows it outside the country.

Black Sherif won the top prize in 2026. He beat Medikal, Stonebwoy, Wendy Shay, Sarkodie and Diana Hamilton to win Artiste of the Year on the back of his album Iron Boy. At 24, he became the youngest artiste in the awards’ history to win the category twice.

How TGMA winners are chosen

In March 2026, the Ghana Music Award Academy Board announced the 27th TGMA nominees. The board has used its authority before. In one year it chose not to give Artiste of the Year to any nominee, which let the late dancehall star Ebony Reigns take that year’s spotlight.

Trace Awards

The Trace Awards are run by Trace, the music TV and streaming brand, and cover Africa and its diaspora with a strong focus on Afrobeats music. Editions have not followed a fixed yearly schedule. As of October 30, 2026, we have not confirmed the next edition’s date, host city or the most recent top-prize winner from official sources, so we have not listed them.

MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMAs)

The MAMAs were once the biggest televised African music awards. MTV has not staged them since the mid-2010s, and no revival had been announced when we checked. If you see an “MTV Africa awards” nominee list online, treat it with caution unless MTV itself has published it.

Grammys: Best African Music Performance

The Recording Academy created this category in 2024 to recognise recordings that showcase African music. Winners are chosen by the Academy’s voting members, not by sales or streams. Our explainer on the Grammy Best African Music Performance category covers the eligibility rules in detail.

Every winner so far has been a woman: Tyla with “Water” in 2024, Tems with “Love Me JeJe” in 2025 and Tyla with “Push 2 Start” in 2026. The 2026 award was presented at the 68th Grammys on February 1, 2026, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Tyla beat Burna Boy’s “Love”, Davido and Omah Lay’s “With You”, and Ayra Starr and Wizkid’s “Gimme Dat”, as well as Eddy Kenzo and Mehran Matin’s “Hope & Love”. For the story behind her first win, read Tyla Water Explained.

African music was also recognised outside the category that weekend. Fela Anikulapo Kuti was honoured posthumously with a Lifetime Achievement Award the night before.

BET Awards: Best International Act

Best International Act is the BET Awards category where African stars usually compete. Nigerian and South African artists often make the shortlist alongside acts from the UK, France and Brazil. The ceremony is normally held in the United States around June. We could not confirm the latest winner from official sources by October 30, 2026, so we have not named one.

How to read the African music awards calendar

Three patterns show up when you put these shows side by side:

• Ghana is the most predictable. The TGMAs were held in early May at the same Accra venue in both 2025 and 2026.
• Eligibility windows lag behind the charts. A song can win a Headies or SAMA well after it peaked, because the review periods can run longer than a year.
• The shows are moving abroad. The Headies held its 18th edition in Toronto, and AFRIMA launched its 10th-edition calendar in Los Angeles. Organisers are clearly targeting diaspora audiences and international partners.

FAQ

What is the biggest African music award?

It depends on what you mean by biggest. AFRIMA is the largest by scope and entries, with African Union backing and over 10,000 submissions for its 9th edition. The Grammy for Best African Music Performance gets the most global media coverage.

When is the next AFRIMA?

The 10th AFRIMA is scheduled for May 18–23, 2027, in Lagos. Entries close on January 10, 2027.

Who has won the Grammy for Best African Music Performance?

Tyla won in 2024 and 2026, and Tems won in 2025. Tyla is the only artist to have won it twice.

Can artists enter these awards themselves?

For AFRIMA, yes, through its official entry portal. The Headies, SAMAs and TGMAs announce nominees through their own academies and judging panels after their eligibility periods close.

Are the MTV Africa Music Awards still running?

No. MTV has not held the MAMAs since the mid-2010s and had not announced a return as of October 30, 2026.

The Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance has been handed out three times, and Tyla has won it twice. This article explains how the category works, which songs have been nominated since it launched, who won each year, and how all 15 nominated recordings rank.

Last updated: October 29, 2026

What the Best African Music Performance category is

The Recording Academy announced Best African Music Performance in June 2023, alongside two other new categories, Best Pop Dance Recording and Best Alternative Jazz Album. It was first presented at the 66th Grammy Awards in February 2024. It sits inside the Global Music field with Best Global Music Performance and Best Global Music Album.

The category rewards a single track, not an album. The Academy’s description says it honours recordings that use local musical expressions from across the African continent, drawing on regional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic traditions. The style examples the Academy listed when it announced the award included Afrobeat, Afrobeats, Afro-fusion, Afropop, Alté, Amapiano, Bongo Flava, Genge, Highlife, Fuji, Kwaito, Gqom, Kizomba and Chimurenga.

That range is wider than the nominee lists suggest. In three years the field has been dominated by Nigerian Afrobeats and South African amapiano-pop. A Bongo Flava record from Dar es Salaam, a Gengetone or Genge track rooted in Kenya music, a Congolese ndombolo cut or a recording drawn from the music of Ethiopia would all fit the brief on paper. None has reached the final five yet.

Before 2024, African artists competed for Grammys in the Global Music categories, where a Lagos club record could end up against Indian classical fusion, Latin crossover or South African choral music. Afrobeats music had grown into one of the most-streamed exports on the planet, yet it still had no category built around it. The new award fixed that by creating a lane where African popular music is measured against itself.

How a song becomes eligible and gets nominated

The Grammy process is more like a filter than a popularity contest. You cannot vote your favourite song in as a fan, and streaming numbers alone do not decide anything.

The path from release to nomination

1. Release inside the eligibility window. The track must be commercially released within that year’s period, which usually runs from late summer or early autumn of one year to late August or mid-September of the next.
2. Entry by a label or member. Labels, distributors and Recording Academy members submit entries. If an artist’s team does not enter a song, it cannot be nominated, no matter how big it was.
3. Screening. Panels of genre experts check that each entry belongs in the category. A song can be moved or removed if it does not fit.
4. First-round voting. Voting members choose the nominees. The Academy caps the number of categories a member can vote in outside the General Field, which steers voters toward the genres they know.
5. Final-round voting. Members vote again to pick the winner from the five nominees.

The award goes to the credited performing artists. Producers and songwriters are not named as recipients in this category. That matters for collaborations such as Asake and Olamide’s “Amapiano”, where both performers share the nomination.

Eligibility windows and ceremonies so far

Ceremony	Date held	Eligibility window	Winner
66th Grammy Awards	February 4, 2024	October 1, 2022 to September 15, 2023	“Water” by Tyla
67th Grammy Awards	February 2, 2025	September 16, 2023 to August 30, 2024	“Love Me JeJe” by Tems
68th Grammy Awards	February 1, 2026	August 31, 2024 to August 30, 2025	“Push 2 Start” by Tyla

The window explains some odd timing. “Push 2 Start” was released in October 2024 and won more than a year later. Songs that break in Lagos during Detty December land inside the following ceremony’s window, so a festive-season hit has to survive a full year of industry attention before voters see it.

So far, the category has been presented at the Premiere Ceremony, the afternoon show held before the main telecast where most Grammys are handed out. That is why many viewers in Lagos, Accra or Nairobi first see the result on social media rather than on the broadcast.

Every winner and nominee, year by year

2024: the first year (66th Grammys)

Song	Artist	Country of lead act	Result
“Water”	Tyla	South Africa	Won
“Amapiano”	Asake & Olamide	Nigeria	Nominated
“City Boys”	Burna Boy	Nigeria	Nominated
“Unavailable”	Davido featuring Musa Keys	Nigeria	Nominated
“Rush”	Ayra Starr	Nigeria	Nominated

Four of the five nominees were Nigerian, and many observers expected Burna Boy or Davido to take the first trophy. Tyla won instead with “Water”, which had already peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. She was widely reported as the youngest African solo artist to win a Grammy. The song also made her the first solo South African artist on the Hot 100 since Hugh Masekela’s “Grazing in the Grass” in 1968.

2025: Tems takes it for Nigeria (67th Grammys)

Song	Artist	Country of lead act	Result
“Love Me JeJe”	Tems	Nigeria	Won
“Tomorrow”	Yemi Alade	Nigeria	Nominated
“MMS”	Asake & Wizkid	Nigeria	Nominated
“Sensational”	Chris Brown featuring Davido & Lojay	United States	Nominated
“Higher”	Burna Boy	Nigeria	Nominated

Tems won with a song built around Seyi Sodimu’s 1997 Nigerian hit “Love Me Jeje”. It was her second Grammy. She had already won Best Melodic Rap Performance in 2023 as a featured artist on Future’s “Wait for U” with Drake. The Chris Brown nomination set off a lot of debate, and it proved a point many fans had missed: the category judges the music, not the passport.

2026: Tyla’s second win (68th Grammys)

Song	Artist	Country of lead act	Result
“Push 2 Start”	Tyla	South Africa	Won
“Hope & Love”	Burna Boy	Nigeria	Nominated
“Gimme Dat”	Ayra Starr & Wizkid	Nigeria	Nominated
“With You”	Davido featuring Omah Lay	Nigeria	Nominated
“Love”	Eddy Kenzo & Mehran Matin	Uganda	Nominated

Tyla became the first artist to win the category twice. The more important sign for the category’s future was Eddy Kenzo, the first Ugandan act to reach the final five. Kenzo had already made history in 2023 as the first Ugandan Grammy nominee, in Best Global Music Performance, so his return in the African category gave East Africa its first foothold in the new lane.

Quick-reference: all 15 nominations at a glance

This table gathers every nomination so you can scan the field before reading the ranking.

Rank	Song	Artist	Ceremony	Sound	Result
1	“Water”	Tyla	2024	Amapiano-pop	Won
2	“Love Me JeJe”	Tems	2025	Afro-R&B, highlife roots	Won
3	“Rush”	Ayra Starr	2024	Afropop	Nominated
4	“Push 2 Start”	Tyla	2026	Amapiano-R&B	Won
5	“Unavailable”	Davido feat. Musa Keys	2024	Afrobeats-amapiano	Nominated
6	“City Boys”	Burna Boy	2024	Afro-fusion, hip-hop edge	Nominated
7	“Amapiano”	Asake & Olamide	2024	Street-pop amapiano	Nominated
8	“MMS”	Asake & Wizkid	2025	Afrobeats, street-pop	Nominated
9	“With You”	Davido feat. Omah Lay	2026	Mid-tempo Afrobeats	Nominated
10	“Love”	Eddy Kenzo & Mehran Matin	2026	East African pop	Nominated
11	“Gimme Dat”	Ayra Starr & Wizkid	2026	Afropop	Nominated
12	“Higher”	Burna Boy	2025	Afro-fusion	Nominated
13	“Tomorrow”	Yemi Alade	2025	Afropop	Nominated
14	“Hope & Love”	Burna Boy	2026	Afro-fusion	Nominated
15	“Sensational”	Chris Brown feat. Davido & Lojay	2025	R&B-Afrobeats crossover	Nominated

How we ranked the nominees

A ranking of Grammy nominees should judge the records, not repeat the voters’ results. Four tests decided where each song landed:

• Rootedness. How clearly the song draws on a specific African sound, rhythm or language, which is what the category says it rewards.
• Impact. Whether the song moved the culture, in clubs and on the street as well as on charts, in Africa and across the diaspora.
• Craft. Production, vocal performance, hook writing and how the record holds up on a fifth listen.
• Distinctiveness. Whether the song sounds like nobody else in its year, or like a strong version of a familiar formula.

Winning helped only indirectly. A song that won usually scored well on impact, but two winners sit outside the top two places.

The 15 nominees ranked

1. “Water” by Tyla (2024, won): top pick

“Water” is the reason this category has a story at all. Tyla took the log-drum bass and patient swing of amapiano, a sound born in Gauteng townships, and fitted it under a pop-R&B vocal light enough for American radio without diluting the rhythm. The song spread through a dance challenge, then held its place on the charts once the challenge faded, which is the harder part.

Its impact is the easiest to measure. A Hot 100 peak of No. 7 and a Grammy win took amapiano into rooms that had never heard of Pretoria or Soweto, and our piece on Tyla Water explains how the hit brings amapiano to pop in more detail. If you only play one song from this list to someone new to African music, play this one.

2. “Love Me JeJe” by Tems (2025, won)

Tems built her winner on a 1990s Lagos love song, and that choice is what lifts it. “Jeje” is a Yoruba word that carries the sense of gently or calmly, so the hook works as a request to be loved without drama. Her version keeps the warmth of the original and adds her low, unhurried voice, which makes the song feel personal rather than nostalgic.

It ranks second because it does something the category was designed to reward: it connects a current star to a specific Nigerian pop memory. Older listeners in Lagos heard Seyi Sodimu; younger listeners in London and Houston heard Tems. Both groups were right.

3. “Rush” by Ayra Starr (2024, nominated)

“Rush” is the best song on this list that did not win. Ayra Starr’s vocal sits on a bright, bouncing Afropop beat produced by London, and the hook is built to be shouted back by a crowd. The song became a confidence anthem for young fans, especially young women, across West Africa and the diaspora.

Its loss in 2024 says more about the strength of “Water” than about any weakness here. Ayra Starr was 20 when “Rush” came out, and the record announced a pop star with an ear for melody that most of her peers would envy.

4. “Push 2 Start” by Tyla (2026, won)

Tyla’s second winner is smoother and more R&B-leaning than “Water”. The amapiano influence is still there in the groove, but the song leans on mood and texture rather than an obvious drop. It took longer to catch on than her breakout hit, building through 2025 before the Grammy voting season arrived.

It ranks below “Rush” because it refines a formula rather than inventing one. That is not a knock on the song; it is a reminder of how much ground “Water” had already covered. Two wins in three years also show that voters respond strongly to a record that travels well beyond the continent.

5. “Unavailable” by Davido featuring Musa Keys (2024, nominated)

“Unavailable” is one of the clearest examples of the Lagos and Johannesburg scenes meeting halfway. Davido brings the Afrobeats swagger and South African vocalist Musa Keys brings the amapiano feel. In Nigerian slang, calling yourself unavailable means you are too busy, too successful or too in-demand to be reached, and the hook turns that boast into a party line.

The song was a centrepiece of Davido’s album “Timeless”, which also earned him nominations in Best Global Music Album and Best Global Music Performance that year. Three nominations and no wins in 2024 started a pattern Davido has not yet broken.

6. “City Boys” by Burna Boy (2024, nominated)

“City Boys” is Burna Boy at his most combative, with a harder, rap-influenced energy than his usual Afro-fusion. It came from “I Told Them…”, an album that leaned openly on hip-hop. The song is pure confidence, a celebration of urban life, money and status delivered in a mix of English and Pidgin.

It works best live, and Burna Boy performed it on the 2024 Grammys broadcast. It ranks sixth because its hip-hop leaning, while exciting, makes it less rooted in a distinct African sound than the songs above it.

7. “Amapiano” by Asake & Olamide (2024, nominated)

The title tells you exactly what Asake was doing in 2023: folding the South African sound into Nigerian street-pop, with call-and-response vocals drawn from Fuji and Yoruba party music. Olamide, the YBNL boss who signed Asake, joins as mentor and co-star, and their chemistry is the song’s main draw.

It sits at seven because it captured a real moment, when amapiano rhythms were reshaping Lagos production. It loses ground for borrowing its biggest idea openly, but the vocal arrangement still sounds like nobody but Asake.

8. “MMS” by Asake & Wizkid (2025, nominated)

“MMS” pairs two of Nigeria’s biggest voices on Asake’s album “Lungu Boy”. Asake’s choir-style hooks and Wizkid’s relaxed delivery should not fit together, and the friction is the point. It is a song for the second half of a night out, when the energy has peaked and the dancefloor slows down.

It ranks below “Amapiano” because the novelty of Asake’s sound had faded slightly by 2024. Still, it gave Wizkid his first nomination in this category, after his earlier Grammy win for Best Music Video on Beyoncé’s “Brown Skin Girl” in 2021.

9. “With You” by Davido featuring Omah Lay (2026, nominated)

“With You” comes from Davido’s 2025 album “5ive” and pairs him with Omah Lay, whose soft, melancholy tone has made him one of the most distinctive voices of his generation. The result is a mid-tempo love song with a warmer, more vulnerable feel than Davido’s party records.

It is a strong song held back by being a little too comfortable. The category has seen plenty of polished Afrobeats love songs, and this one does not change the shape of the genre. It did give Davido his third nomination in three ceremonies, which no other artist has matched without a win apart from Burna Boy.

10. “Love” by Eddy Kenzo & Mehran Matin (2026, nominated)

Eddy Kenzo’s nomination matters more than its ranking suggests. He built his career in Uganda, where his 2014 hit “Sitya Loss” became a viral sensation partly because of its video featuring street children dancing. Two Grammy nominations later, he is the clearest proof that the category can look beyond Lagos and Johannesburg.

“Love” lands in tenth place because, as a record, it made a smaller cultural impact than the Nigerian and South African hits above it. As a sign of where the category could go, it may be the most important nomination of 2026.

11. “Gimme Dat” by Ayra Starr & Wizkid (2026, nominated)

On paper, Ayra Starr and Wizkid should produce something special: a young pop star at her peak and a veteran who helped take Afrobeats global. The song is pleasant, well produced and easy to like.

It ranks here because it never reaches the urgency of “Rush”. It plays like a duet built for streaming playlists rather than for a crowd at a festival or a club, and in a category this crowded with Nigerian stars, that is not enough to stand out.

12. “Higher” by Burna Boy (2025, nominated)

“Higher” is a reflective, uplifting Burna Boy single about rising above struggle. The production is polished and his vocal is assured.

The problem is familiarity. By 2025, voters had heard many versions of Burna’s motivational mid-tempo mode, and “Higher” did not add much. It was a reasonable nomination for a major artist, but not one of his defining records.

13. “Tomorrow” by Yemi Alade (2025, nominated)

Yemi Alade has been one of Africa’s most travelled performers since “Johnny” in 2014, and her nomination recognised a long career of pan-African pop that crossed Francophone and Anglophone markets. “Tomorrow” is bright, upbeat and built around her big voice.

It ranks thirteenth because it plays safe compared with the records around it. The nomination is still welcome: Yemi Alade is one of only three women to reach the final five in this category, alongside Tyla, Tems and Ayra Starr.

14. “Hope & Love” by Burna Boy (2026, nominated)

From Burna Boy’s 2025 album “No Sign of Weakness”, “Hope & Love” carries the warm, positive themes the title promises. It is a well-made song with a big chorus.

It sits near the bottom for the same reason as “Higher”. Burna Boy has now been nominated in every year of the category’s life without winning, and his three entries have not been his strongest work. His Grammy win came earlier, when “Twice as Tall” took Best Global Music Album in 2021.

15. “Sensational” by Chris Brown featuring Davido & Lojay (2025, nominated)

“Sensational” is a well-produced crossover from Chris Brown’s album “11:11”, with Davido and Lojay bringing the Afrobeats sound. As a song, it is catchy and competent.

It ranks last because it is the only nomination led by an artist from outside Africa, in a category created to spotlight African-led music. The record is legal under the rules, which judge sound rather than nationality, but its nomination took a place that could have gone to an African act from a scene not yet represented.

Who has been nominated most

Artist	Nominations in category	Wins	Songs
Burna Boy	3	0	“City Boys”, “Higher”, “Hope & Love”
Davido	3	0	“Unavailable”, “Sensational”, “With You”
Tyla	2	2	“Water”, “Push 2 Start”
Asake	2	0	“Amapiano”, “MMS”
Wizkid	2	0	“MMS”, “Gimme Dat”
Ayra Starr	2	0	“Rush”, “Gimme Dat”
Tems	1	1	“Love Me JeJe”
Olamide, Musa Keys, Yemi Alade, Chris Brown, Lojay, Omah Lay, Eddy Kenzo, Mehran Matin	1 each	0	One credit each

Burna Boy and Davido are the two biggest names in African music never to win the category they dominate in nominations. Tyla has a perfect record. That contrast is the most important storyline of the award’s first three years.

Why South Africa keeps winning with fewer nominees

Count the nominations: 11 of the 15 nominated songs were led by Nigerian acts, two by Tyla, one by Eddy Kenzo of Uganda and one by Chris Brown. Yet Nigeria has won only once.

Three reasons stand out.

Vote splitting

When four strong Nigerian nominees appear in the same category, voters who love Nigerian Afrobeats spread their support across several songs. A single South African nominee with mainstream crossover can then win with a smaller but more concentrated vote. Voters do not coordinate, so this effect is real in any category with a dominant country.

The crossover factor

Most Grammy voters live and work in the American music industry. “Water” and “Push 2 Start” were both American hits before the voting began. A song that has already reached U.S. radio and playlists starts with name recognition that a Lagos street record cannot match, however big it is at home.

The novelty of amapiano

For many American voters in 2023 and 2024, amapiano was the newest, most distinctive sound in the field. Afrobeats was by then familiar. A voter looking for the record that sounds most unlike everything else in the Grammys could easily choose Tyla’s.

None of this is a criticism of the winners, both of whom earned their trophies. It does mean the category’s results have tracked American visibility at least as much as African popularity, which is something to keep in mind when you compare them with continental awards such as the Headies.

How the category fits with the other Global Music awards

The new award sits beside two older categories, and African artists can still compete in all three.

Category	First awarded	What it rewards	Notable African-related winners
Best African Music Performance	2024	A single track rooted in African musical traditions	Tyla (2024, 2026), Tems (2025)
Best Global Music Performance	2022	A single track in any non-Western or global tradition	“Bayethe” by Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini & Nomcebo Zikode (2023)
Best Global Music Album	Under this name since 2021 (formerly World Music Album)	A full album of global music	Burna Boy, “Twice as Tall” (2021); Angélique Kidjo, “Mother Nature” (2022)

A single song can be entered in only one of the two Global Music performance categories, so an artist’s team has to decide where it has the best chance. A song that feels clearly African tends to go into the African category. A collaboration across regions or a more experimental record can make more sense in Best Global Music Performance.

Africa at the Grammys before 2024

The new category built on a long history. These milestones show how African artists and those of African heritage reached the Grammys before the dedicated award existed.

Year	Artist	Category	Work
1966	Miriam Makeba (with Harry Belafonte)	Best Folk Recording	“An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba”
1986	Sade	Best New Artist	Band fronted by Nigerian-born Sade Adu
1988	Ladysmith Black Mambazo	Best Traditional Folk Recording	“Shaka Zulu”
2008	Angélique Kidjo	Best Contemporary World Music Album	“Djin Djin”
2021	Burna Boy	Best Global Music Album	“Twice as Tall”
2021	Wizkid (with Beyoncé, Blue Ivy Carter and Saint Jhn)	Best Music Video	“Brown Skin Girl”
2022	Black Coffee	Best Dance/Electronic Album	“Subconsciously”
2023	Tems (with Future and Drake)	Best Melodic Rap Performance	“Wait for U”
2023	Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini & Nomcebo Zikode	Best Global Music Performance	“Bayethe”

Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Angélique Kidjo each won five Grammys, which still sets the bar for African artists at the awards. Kidjo’s 2020 win for “Celia” came over Burna Boy’s “African Giant”, a result that helped fuel the conversation about whether one global category could fairly judge African pop.

What the category has not done yet

The first three years revealed some clear gaps. These are the storylines worth watching.

• No Ghanaian nominee. Accra has a deep scene, from highlife to Afrobeats and Ghanaian drill, but no Ghanaian act has reached the final five.
• No Francophone or Lusophone nominee. Artists from Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Angola and Mozambique, where coupé-décalé, ndombolo, kuduro and kizomba thrive, have not broken through.
• No North African nominee. The Academy named Gnawa among the eligible traditions, yet Moroccan, Algerian and Egyptian artists remain absent.
• East Africa only once. Eddy Kenzo’s 2026 nomination was a first. Bongo Flava from Tanzania and Kenyan Gengetone, two of the region’s biggest exports, are still waiting.
• No Nigerian men have won. Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid, Asake and Olamide account for most nominations and no wins.

These gaps reflect who gets entered and who already has Academy voters’ attention. Recording Academy leadership has spoken publicly about growing its membership on the continent, and a more African voting body would almost certainly widen the field. Until then, a scene’s ability to manage the entry process, through labels, distributors and members who know the rules, matters nearly as much as its music.

The 2027 Grammys: what is known

As of October 29, 2026, the Recording Academy has not announced the nominations for the 69th Grammy Awards. Nominations are usually revealed in November, with the ceremony in early February, but the specific dates and the eligibility window for the 2027 show have not been confirmed in the sources available to us. We will not guess at nominees.

When the list arrives, look at three things. First, whether Burna Boy or Davido returns for a fourth nomination and whether either finally wins. Second, whether a Ghanaian, Francophone or East African act breaks into the final five. Third, whether a South African record again uses American crossover success to beat a crowded Nigerian field.

FAQ

Who won the first Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance?

Tyla won the first award at the 66th Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024, for “Water”. She beat Asake and Olamide, Burna Boy, Davido featuring Musa Keys, and Ayra Starr.

Who has won Best African Music Performance the most?

Tyla, with two wins: “Water” in 2024 and “Push 2 Start” in 2026. Tems is the only other winner, for “Love Me JeJe” in 2025.

Has Burna Boy ever won Best African Music Performance?

No. Burna Boy has been nominated in all three years, for “City Boys”, “Higher” and “Hope & Love”, without winning. His Grammy win came in 2021, when “Twice as Tall” took Best Global Music Album.

Can non-African artists be nominated?

Yes. The category judges whether a recording draws on African musical traditions, not the artist’s nationality. Chris Brown was nominated in 2025 for “Sensational”, featuring Davido and Lojay.

Has Davido won a Grammy?

Not as of October 29, 2026. Davido has three nominations in this category (“Unavailable”, “Sensational” and “With You”) and earned additional nominations in the Global Music categories in 2024.

Which countries have produced nominees?

Nigeria leads by a wide margin, with 11 of the 15 nominated songs. South Africa has had two (both Tyla’s, with Musa Keys also credited on Davido’s “Unavailable”), Uganda one through Eddy Kenzo, and the United States one through Chris Brown.

Is the category shown on the main Grammys broadcast?

So far, it has been presented at the Premiere Ceremony, the afternoon event held before the main telecast where most categories are announced. The Academy streams that ceremony online.

Afropunk began as a 2003 documentary about Black kids in American punk scenes and grew into one of the most recognisable Black cultural festivals in the world, with editions from Brooklyn to Johannesburg. Our review covers where it came from, which cities have hosted it, what a day on the ground feels like, and whether the ticket is worth your money. Last updated: October 29, 2026.

Our Verdict

Afropunk is the strongest festival brand built around the full range of Black alternative culture, and the crowd is a big part of what you are paying for.

The music lineup varies a lot from year to year and city to city. We go for the fashion, the community and a code of conduct that the festival enforces more seriously than most. If you want a tight, genre-specific bill, you will find better value at a dedicated Afrobeats, Amapiano or rock festival. If you want to see Black punk, soul, hip-hop, house and Afro-diasporic pop on one site, in front of one of the most inventively dressed audiences anywhere, nothing else quite matches it.

Afropunk, Afro-Punk or Afro Punk?

All three spellings point to the same thing. The original film and early festival used the hyphenated Afro-Punk. The brand later settled on AFROPUNK, written as one word and usually in capitals. People searching “afro punk” are generally after the festival, the media platform or the wider idea of the “other Black experience.” That phrase is the movement’s longtime tagline. It refers to Black people living outside the narrow cultural boxes that the mainstream has assigned them.

Key Specs at a Glance

Feature	Detail
Origin	Afro-Punk, a 2003 documentary by James Spooner
First festival	2005, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York
Co-founders	James Spooner and Matthew Morgan
Flagship site	Commodore Barry Park, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Format	Multi-stage, multi-genre music festival plus art, fashion and activism programming
House rules	Posted “No Sexism, No Racism, No Ableism, No Ageism, No Homophobia, No Fatphobia, No Transphobia, No Hatefulness”
Media arm	Year-round editorial site and social channels covering music, culture and justice

A Short History of the Movement

Spooner’s documentary followed Black punks in the United States. Most of them were the only Black faces in their local scenes, dealing with isolation, racism inside supposedly radical spaces, and suspicion from their own communities for liking “white music.” An online message board grew up around the film. That forum gave scattered Black alternative kids a place to find each other, and the festival grew out of that community.

The first festival, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2005, was small and free, and it leaned heavily on punk and hardcore. Spooner stepped away within a few years. He has since spoken publicly about his discomfort with the event’s commercial direction. Under Morgan and later co-owner Jocelyn Cooper, the festival widened its sound to include soul, R&B, hip-hop and electronic music. It moved outdoors to Commodore Barry Park and drew far bigger crowds and corporate sponsors.

Year	Milestone
2003	Afro-Punk documentary released
2005	First Afro-Punk festival held at Brooklyn Academy of Music
2015	Brooklyn introduces paid tickets; Paris edition debuts at La Villette
2016	London edition held at Alexandra Palace
2017	Johannesburg debuts at Constitution Hill over New Year’s Eve
2020	In-person festivals paused by the pandemic
2021	Afropunk Bahia launches in Salvador, Brazil

The 2015 switch to ticketing was the turning point in the brand’s public story. Longtime fans saw it as the moment a grassroots gathering became a lifestyle product. The organisers presented it as the only way to keep a growing event running.

The Cities

Afropunk has never run every edition every year. Dates, venues and even whole cities change between seasons. Treat the table below as a record of where it has been, not a fixed calendar.

City	Notable venue	Typical timing	Notes
Brooklyn, USA	Commodore Barry Park	Late August	The flagship; schedule has been less regular since the pandemic
Atlanta, USA	Varies by year	Autumn	Launched in the mid-2010s as the second U.S. edition
Paris, France	La Villette	Summer	Europe’s first edition, from 2015
London, UK	Alexandra Palace	Summer	Ran in the late 2010s, not annual
Johannesburg, South Africa	Constitution Hill	New Year’s Eve	Set on the grounds of a former prison complex
Salvador, Brazil	Varies by year	November	Ties into Bahia’s Afro-Brazilian heritage

As of today, we cannot confirm a full 2027 schedule across all cities. The official AFROPUNK channels are the only reliable source for dates and ticket tiers, and announcements tend to arrive a few months out.

The Johannesburg edition deserves a special mention for African readers. Held at Constitution Hill, where Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi were both once detained, it carries a weight the American editions cannot. Its New Year’s Eve slot also pairs neatly with a West African holiday run, so some travellers combine it with Lagos and Detty December. Its bills tend to lean on local sounds, so a primer on Amapiano music or the gqom meaning will help you get more from the South African acts.

What to Expect on the Day

The crowd is the headline

Plenty of attendees will tell you the outfits matter as much as the sets. Expect hand-built armour, mohawks, braided sculptures, thrifted punk, and traditional textiles cut into something new. The festival’s editorial team has long described Black alternative fashion as a practice of authenticity rather than costume. That spirit shows in the field. If you plan to wear West African prints, our explainer on dashiki meaning covers the history worth knowing first.

The code of conduct is real

The “No Sexism, No Racism…” list is printed large and repeated from the stage. Queer and trans attendees have long described Afropunk as one of the safer large festivals for them. That reputation is a major reason people return. Staff will intervene on harassment, and the audience usually backs them up.

Activism sits beside the music

Community organisations, voter-registration tables and local art vendors are part of the layout. The festival’s media arm carries the same priorities all year. It publishes essays on environmental justice in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, Black August and incarcerated mothers, queer storytelling and Black girlhood. These run alongside music premieres and reviews. The website is half the brand, and reading it before you go gives you a sense of the politics on site.

The music is broad, sometimes thin

Expect multiple stages and big swings in genre between them. The lower half of the bill is where we have made our best discoveries. Lineup depth has varied, though, and in some years the top names carried a fairly light undercard. Check the full poster, not only the headliners, before you buy.

Pros and Cons

Pros
– Unmatched atmosphere, fashion and sense of community among Black festivalgoers
– A visible, enforced inclusion code that queer, trans and plus-size attendees consistently praise
– Genre range that rewards curious listeners
– International editions with real local character, especially Johannesburg and Salvador

Cons
– Inconsistent calendar; cities and dates change with little warning
– Ticket prices and sponsorship have drawn criticism from early supporters since 2015
– Lineups can feel top-heavy in leaner years
– Food, water and toilet queues at the Brooklyn site get long on hot August afternoons

Who It’s For

Afropunk is for Black alternative kids of every age and the friends who move with them. It also suits fashion people who treat a festival as a runway, and music fans who would rather hear a punk set, a soul revue and a house DJ in one day than ten acts from the same scene. It is a weaker choice for anyone who wants a pure Afrobeats music weekend or a straight rock bill. It also frustrates anyone who needs firm dates a year ahead.

FAQ

Is it spelled afropunk or afro-punk?

Both refer to the same movement. The 2003 film and early festival used “Afro-Punk,” and the brand now styles itself AFROPUNK as one word.

Is Afropunk free?

It was free in its early Brooklyn years. Paid tickets arrived in 2015, and every current edition we know of is ticketed.

Who founded Afropunk?

Filmmaker James Spooner and Matthew Morgan co-founded the festival in 2005, building on Spooner’s 2003 documentary.

Is there an Afropunk festival in Africa?

Yes. Johannesburg has hosted editions at Constitution Hill around New Year’s Eve, beginning in 2017.

Can anyone attend?

Yes. The festival centres Black culture but is open to everyone who respects its posted code of conduct.

Detty December is the stretch from mid-December into the first days of January when Lagos and Accra turn into one long party of concerts, beach days, weddings and family reunions. The name is Nigerian Pidgin, and the season pulls in locals and thousands of returning diaspora. Here is what it is, why it got so big, and how to plan a Lagos trip that doesn’t drain your account or your patience.

What “Detty December” Actually Means

“Detty” is Pidgin for “dirty.” Nobody means unwashed. It means loose, carefree and a little reckless in the fun sense: late nights, loud music, money spent faster than planned.

So Detty December is the month you stop being sensible. Office workers clock out for the holidays. Students are home. Families gather. Everyone has a wedding invite, a concert ticket and a cousin who just flew in from London.

You’ll hear a few other phrases on repeat:

• IJGB (“I Just Got Back”): the half-teasing label for diaspora returnees with fresh accents and foreign-currency budgets.
• Japa: Yoruba-rooted slang for emigrating. December is when many who “japa’d” come home.
• Owambe: a lavish Yoruba party, usually a wedding or birthday, with matching outfits, live bands and plenty of food.
• Go-slow: traffic. You will meet it.

How the Season Got So Big

Back where it all started

December has always been the homecoming month in Nigeria and Ghana. People travel to their hometowns for Christmas, churches hold packed services, and families schedule weddings so relatives abroad can attend. The parties existed long before the hashtag.

What changed in the 2010s was scale. The diaspora grew, flights got more frequent, and social media let everyone see the fun in real time. Mr Eazi’s Detty Rave concert in Accra helped cement the phrase, and promoters in both cities started stacking their biggest shows into the last two weeks of the year.

The music went global

As afrobeats music broke into Western charts, the artists behind it became stadium-level names. Burna Boy, Wizkid and Davido have all used December hometown shows as victory laps. Fans who streamed them all year wanted to see them at home, in front of a crowd that knows every word.

The sound also widened. South African amapiano music took over Lagos dance floors in the early 2020s, and log-drum basslines now sit alongside Afrobeats in almost every DJ set you’ll hear that month.

Ghana’s push, and the friendly rivalry

Ghana’s government declared 2019 the “Year of Return,” marking 400 years since the first recorded enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619. It drew African Americans and Caribbean visitors to Accra in large numbers, and the December energy there grew with it. Festivals like AfroFuture (formerly Afrochella) built on that wave.

Lagos answered by doing what Lagos does: getting louder. Today the two cities are the twin capitals of the season, and plenty of visitors split their trip between them.

What a Typical Lagos December Looks Like

Expect your days to start late and end very late. A simple day might look like this: brunch on Victoria Island, a beach club in the afternoon, a concert at 10pm that actually starts at 1am, and an after-party you didn’t plan.

The main ingredients:

• Concerts and festivals. Big-name headline shows usually land at Eko Hotel and Suites, Eko Convention Centre or Landmark Beach. Flytime Fest has been a long-running fixture of the Lagos December calendar.
• Beach days. Landmark Beach and Elegushi Beach are the easy options. A boat to Tarkwa Bay gives you a calmer day.
• Owambe season. December is peak wedding time. If a friend invites you, go. You’ll eat well and dance harder than at any club.
• Faith events. The Experience, a huge gospel concert at Tafawa Balewa Square, usually happens in early December. On December 31, many churches hold “crossover” services into the new year.
• Food everywhere. Party jollof, suya, asun (spicy grilled goat), small chops, pepper soup and roasted plantain (boli). Wash it down with Chapman or zobo.

Why Detty December Matters

For many families, December is the only time everyone is in the same room. A daughter in Houston, a son in Manchester and grandparents in Ibadan finally share a table. That reunion is the real heart of the season, and it’s why people pay holiday-level airfares to make it happen.

There’s also an economic layer. Event promoters, caterers, fashion designers, DJs, drivers, hotels, and small vendors selling drinks outside venues can earn a large share of their annual income in a few weeks. Tailors are booked solid making outfits for weddings and parties.

And culturally, it’s a showcase. Visitors see Nigerian music, fashion and food on home ground, with all the context that streaming can’t give you.

The Criticisms, Challenges and Trade-offs

Not everyone loves it, and you should go in clear-eyed.

Prices spike. Hotels, short-let apartments, event tickets, restaurants and ride-hailing all get more expensive in December. Nigerians often joke about a “Detty December tax” on anyone who looks like a visitor.

Locals get squeezed. Nigeria has been dealing with heavy inflation and a sharp fall in the naira’s value since 2023. When prices are set for visitors spending dollars or pounds, residents earning naira can be priced out of their own city’s parties.

Traffic gets brutal. Lagos traffic is bad on a normal day. In December, the Lekki-Epe Expressway and the bridges linking the mainland to the islands can turn a 20-minute trip into two hours.

Infrastructure strains. Power cuts are common and most venues and hotels run generators. Fuel queues can appear. Things start late.

None of this is a reason to skip it. It’s a reason to plan.

How to Plan Your Trip to Lagos in 7 Steps

1. Pick your dates

The busiest window runs from about December 20 to January 1. Arrive around December 15 and you’ll catch the build-up with slightly calmer prices. Leave in the first week of January, when flights out are packed with returnees.

2. Book flights early

You’ll fly into Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS) in Ikeja. Fares from London, the U.S. and elsewhere in Africa climb steeply as December approaches. If you’re reading this in late October, book now. Every week you wait usually costs you.

3. Sort your entry documents

Unless you hold a Nigerian or ECOWAS passport, you’ll need a visa. Nigeria moved to an online e-visa system in 2025, so apply through the Nigeria Immigration Service’s official portal well ahead of travel and avoid third-party agents. Carry a yellow fever vaccination certificate, and talk to a doctor about malaria prevention before you go.

4. Choose where to stay

Most December events happen on the island side of the city, so base yourself there if you can:

Area	Best for	Trade-off
Victoria Island	Concerts, nightlife, restaurants	Priciest in December
Ikoyi	Quieter, upscale stays	Fewer walkable spots
Lekki	Short-lets, beaches, groups	Expressway traffic
Ikeja (mainland)	Near airport, family visits	Long trips to island events

Groups of friends often rent a short-let apartment in Lekki and split it. Confirm the place has a generator and water supply before paying.

5. Plan your money

The naira moves a lot, so check the rate close to your trip. Locals rely heavily on bank transfers and card terminals, which can be awkward with a foreign card. Carry a mix of cash and cards, change money at reputable bureaux de change, and keep small notes for tips and vendors.

One warning: Nigerian law prohibits mutilating or abusing naira notes, and the authorities have prosecuted people for it in recent years. At parties, follow your hosts’ lead on “spraying” money and never step on or rip notes.

6. Get around smartly

Uber left Nigeria in September 2026, so Bolt and inDrive are now the main ride-hailing apps in Lagos and the easiest choice for first-timers. For a packed schedule, hiring a car with a driver for a few days often works out better. Skip the yellow danfo buses until you know the city. Add at least an hour to any trip that crosses a bridge.

7. Build a loose schedule

Buy tickets for your must-see concerts as soon as they go on sale, since big shows sell out. As of late October 2026, full December lineups for Lagos are still being announced, so follow the promoters you care about. Then leave room. The best nights often come from an invite you got that afternoon.

Etiquette and Staying Safe

• Dress up. Lagos takes fashion seriously. Pack outfits for weddings and concerts. If you’re thinking of wearing traditional pieces, a quick read on dashiki meaning helps you wear one with respect.
• Greet people properly. Elders especially. A warm greeting opens doors.
• Watch your phone. Keep it secure in crowds and at traffic stops.
• Pace yourself. Harmattan, the dry, dusty Saharan wind, blows in around this time. Drink water, sleep when you can, and don’t schedule three parties a night every night.
• Be fair to vendors. Haggling is normal in markets. Squeezing someone over the price of a drink is not.

A Season Bigger Than the Hype

Strip away the Instagram posts and Detty December is about people coming home. The concerts are spectacular and the parties are real, but what sticks with most visitors is the family dinner, the wedding where strangers fed them, and the city’s energy at 3am. Plan the logistics, then let Lagos take it from there.

FAQ

What does Detty December mean?

It’s Nigerian Pidgin for “dirty December,” meaning a wild, carefree holiday month of parties, concerts and celebrations. It mostly refers to the season in Lagos and Accra.

When does Detty December start and end?

There’s no official start date. Activity builds from mid-December, peaks between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and winds down in the first week of January.

Is Detty December only in Lagos?

No. Accra is the other major hub, and many visitors combine the two. Other Nigerian cities like Abuja and Port Harcourt have busy Decembers too, on a smaller scale.

Is Lagos safe for visitors in December?

Most visitors have a great time by sticking to well-known areas, using ride-hailing apps, keeping valuables out of sight and traveling with friends at night. Use the same street sense you would in any big, crowded city.

Do I need a visa for Detty December in Lagos?

Most foreign visitors do. Apply through Nigeria’s official e-visa portal early, and carry a yellow fever vaccination certificate. ECOWAS citizens and Nigerian passport holders don’t need a visa.

How far ahead should I plan?

Ideally three to four months. Flights and short-lets get expensive fast, and popular concerts can sell out within days of tickets going on sale.

The Headies is Nigeria’s longest-running dedicated music awards show. It was founded in 2006 by Ayo Animashaun of Hip Hop World Magazine and is widely treated as the country’s top industry prize. Here we explain how it started, how the categories work, and which wins shaped the careers of Nigeria’s biggest stars.

Last updated: October 29, 2026

What the Headies actually is

The Headies is an annual awards ceremony, at least in principle, that honours Nigerian recording artists, producers and video directors. In practice the schedule has slipped more than once. We cover that below.

The show began as the Hip Hop World Awards, an offshoot of Animashaun’s Hip Hop World Magazine. The early focus was Nigeria’s rap and hip hop scene, which in the mid-2000s was still finding its commercial footing. As the wider sound we now call Afrobeats took over Nigerian radio and clubs, the awards grew with it.

By 2011 the event had dropped the Hip Hop World Awards name and become The Headies. The rebrand marked a real shift. The categories now reached well beyond rap to cover pop, R&B, street-hop, gospel and alternative music. If you want the bigger story of that sound, our explainer on Afrobeats music traces where it came from.

Today, a Headies plaque is one of the clearest signals that the Nigerian industry itself rates you. It carries less weight than a Grammy abroad. At home it often matters more.

A short history, edition by edition

The Headies did not run like clockwork. The table below shows the key turning points we could confirm, counting editions the way the organisers do.

Year	Edition	What happened
2006	1st	Launched as the Hip Hop World Awards
2011	6th	First edition under The Headies name
2016	11th	Last ceremony before a one-year gap
2017	None	No ceremony held
2018	12th	Show returns
2019	13th	Rema and Fireboy DML era begins
2020	None	No ceremony during the pandemic year
2021	14th	Held in February, covering the delayed cycle
2022	15th	Moved to Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2023	16th	Held in Atlanta again

The Atlanta years

The 15th and 16th editions moved to Atlanta, Georgia. The 2022 show took place at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. The organisers framed the move as taking Nigerian music to the diaspora and to the US industry, where Afrobeats was charting at the time.

The decision split opinion. Some Lagos fans felt the country’s flagship music awards should stay home. Others saw it as overdue recognition that Nigerian pop had become a global export. We think both points hold up. The move made sense commercially, and it also put the show out of reach for most of the audience that built it.

Editions after 2023

We have not been able to confirm the full winners lists and venues of editions after the 16th to the standard we hold ourselves to. We’ve left them out of the tables. Check the organisers’ official channels for the latest edition before relying on any third-party recap.

How the categories work

The Headies has added, merged and renamed categories many times. That makes it hard to compare one year with another. The core structure has stayed fairly stable, though, and it falls into four groups.

Group	Example categories	What it rewards
Major awards	Artiste of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year	Overall impact during the eligibility window
Newcomer awards	Next Rated, Rookie of the Year	Breakout acts on their first big run
Genre awards	Best Rap Album, Best Street-Hop Artiste, Best R&B Single, Best Pop Single	Excellence within a specific sound
Craft awards	Producer of the Year, Best Music Video, Lyricist on the Roll	Behind-the-scenes and technical skill

On top of these sit special honours such as Hall of Fame and Special Recognition. Those are given at the organisers’ discretion rather than through the normal nomination process. There is also a Viewers’ Choice category decided by public vote.

Eligibility windows

Each cycle covers a defined release window, announced alongside the nominations. This matters more than casual fans realise. A song that blew up in December might count toward the following edition rather than the current one. That window explains a lot of “how was this not nominated?” complaints. When the ceremony skips a year, the window stretches, and the next edition has to cover more than twelve months of music.

How winners are picked

Nominations and most winners come from an academy and review process run by the organisers. The public vote applies only to specific categories like Viewers’ Choice. That is a key difference from fan-voted awards, where the artist with the biggest online following tends to win almost everything.

Next Rated: the category that predicts the future

If one Headies category has earned a reputation, it is Next Rated. It goes to the artist judged most likely to dominate the coming years, and for long stretches the winner has also received a car. Its track record for spotting future stars is genuinely strong.

Year	Next Rated winner	What came next
2011	Wizkid	Became one of Africa’s biggest global stars
2012	Davido	Built a run of continental hits and a global profile
2016	Mr Eazi	Built an international profile and music business
2019	Rema	Went on to global success with “Calm Down”

Look at that list and you see the point. Two of the three names that now define Nigerian pop abroad picked up Next Rated before the world knew them. The third, Burna Boy, built his global run through a different path. These days he lands moments like Burna Boy at the Ballon d’Or, a long way from Lagos awards nights.

The same 2019 ceremony that crowned Rema also gave Rookie of the Year to Fireboy DML. That night looks prophetic in hindsight, since both went on to major international success.

The big winners and why they matter

Several artists have built up large Headies collections over the years. Wizkid, Davido, Olamide and Burna Boy are the names that come up most when fans argue about who has won the most. Exact all-time totals vary depending on whether you count special honours, so we won’t print a ranking we can’t fully verify.

What we can say clearly is how each type of win tends to play out.

• Next Rated often comes at the start of a career and has repeatedly named future headliners.
• Album of the Year usually goes to a project with both commercial reach and critical respect, rather than a pure streaming giant.
• Street-hop categories gave artists from Lagos’s Yoruba-language rap scene, Olamide above all, formal recognition long before global labels paid attention.
• Craft awards such as Producer of the Year are where the people building the sound get their flowers.

That last point deserves more attention than it gets. Nigerian pop runs on its producers, and the Headies is one of the few places they share the stage with the stars they make.

Why the Headies still matters in a streaming era

You could argue that awards matter less now that charts, streams and global tours tell us who is winning. We disagree, for three reasons.

First, a Headies win is a peer judgment from inside the Nigerian industry. That counts for something when global attention can swing on one viral clip.

Second, the genre categories protect sounds that wouldn’t win a popularity contest. Rap, gospel and alternative acts can still get a national spotlight.

Third, the ceremony itself is a cultural event. Performances, outfits and acceptance speeches drive weeks of conversation across Lagos, Abuja and diaspora communities from London to Houston.

The Headies has real weaknesses too. The irregular schedule, the shifting category names and the overseas venues have all frustrated loyal fans. A prize built on the slogan of celebrating Nigerian music has to keep earning the trust of the people who listen to it at home.

FAQ

What does the Headies award?

The Headies honours Nigerian music across major categories like Artiste of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year. It also has newcomer prizes like Next Rated, genre categories, and craft awards for producers and video directors.

Who founded the Headies?

Ayo Animashaun founded it in 2006 through Hip Hop World Magazine. It was originally called the Hip Hop World Awards before becoming The Headies.

Why are there gaps in the Headies edition numbers?

No ceremony was held in 2017 or 2020. Edition numbers count ceremonies, not calendar years. That is why the 16th edition took place in 2023, seventeen years after the first.

Where is the Headies held?

The show has traditionally been staged in Lagos, Nigeria. The 15th and 16th editions in 2022 and 2023 took place in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Check the organisers’ official announcements for the venue of the most recent edition.

Is the Headies voted on by fans?

Mostly no. Nominations and most winners come from the organisers’ academy and review process. The public vote applies only to selected categories such as Viewers’ Choice.

What is the Next Rated award?

Next Rated goes to the act judged most likely to break through in the years ahead. Past winners include Wizkid, Davido, Mr Eazi and Rema, which is why many fans treat it as the most predictive prize the Headies gives out.