How Afrobeats Dominated 2022 and is Set to Eat Up 2023 🤌🏾

2022 was the year of breakout artists like Asake, whose hit ‘Terminator’ shows how trans-artistic and transnational afrobeat gets. Rising singer Oxlade dominated the airwaves, clubs, and even bedrooms with his single ‘KU LO SA’. His performance of the song on a COLORS show has already crossed the 50 million views mark on YouTube. The Gen Z general, Ayra Starr, also dominated the airwaves with her career-defining single ‘Rush’ and her historic collaborations with global stars like Kelly Rowland and Stormzy. 

Looking deeper into the music catalogue of the year through albums, 2022 was also the year of afrobeats stars flexing their creative range with complete bodies of work. The most memorable album releases for me were ‘Sad Romance’ by producer-songwriter CKay, Omah Lay’s ‘Boy Alone’, Rema’s ‘Rave and Roses’, Fireboy DML’S ‘Playboy’, Adekunle Gold’s ‘Catch Me If You Can’ and the most-streamed album in Nigeria, Burna Boy’s ‘Love Damini’.

Another monumental moment of 2022 was the release of the Wakanda Forever soundtrack album featuring CKay, Fireboy DML, Rema, BurnaBoy, and Tems. Speaking of Tems, no other Afrobeats artist ate up 2022 as she did. Alongside her version of ‘No Woman, No Cry’ for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Tems scooped hella awards. She stormed the USA, picking up a BET Award, a Soul Train Music Award, two American Music Awards, and, most recently a GRAMMY Award for her collaboration with Drake and Future on ‘Wait for U’.

With all the leaps and achievements Afrobeats enjoyed in 2022, our expectations are high for the endless possibilities and opportunities 2023 will bring to the industry. The evolution of Afrobeats has seen the industry grow to a global level and with the emergence of fresh, young voices we can only expect more and more surprises. A good number of the current top Afrobeat artists are Gen Z which gives us a chance to wait excitedly for what the near and far future holds in terms of Afrobeats.

Here are some things we at Kenga are expecting from afrobeats in this new year.

Afrobeats Meets Other Global Genres

Nigerian singer Rema is a leading figure in the global rise of African music. In 2022, he set a landmark example of how successful collaborations between African and Western artists. A remix of his hit track ‘Calm Down,’ which features Selena Gomez, has garnered more than 200M YouTube views, and he is currently one of Nigeria's and Africa’s top pop stars. Are more global collaborations on the way for African artists? We can only speculate.

It’s also clear that partnerships between Afrobeats and international sounds like K-Pop can be a bridge between two of the fastest-growing entertainment genres. For example, a song like 'BOLO’ by Penomeco, a South Korean rapper, has a heavy West African influence. Penomeco, who even wrote lyrics in Igbo, a Nigerian language, mentioned has stated that his inspiration is Burna Boy.

so apparently penomeco was inspired by burna boy to attempt afropop pic.twitter.com/8JigUOa2lb

— hoodlum (@geniusuga__) August 26, 2021

In 2023, we can only imagine bigger, better, and broader collaborations between African artists and other global artists from different industries.

Visual Albums

These types of albums are long-form music videos. They usually feature multiple songs and act as extended cinematic works or films based on music. Visual albums are a hybrid of music, video, and film. Asake released the video for Yoga on Jan 30, 2023, and, in 24 hours, its 2.8 million views affirmed that the visuals of that video were ‘visualling’! 🔥🥵 From the choreography to the storytelling and the styling; everything is giving!

2022 showed us that Asake’s creativity is off the roof, infusing three cultures in one song. The introduction from Mauritian legend Michell Legris. Costume and dance from the Lebbu culture in Senegal and the Nigerian Pidgin/Yoruba lyrics. The project gave visuals royalty. Every shot felt calculated and infused with a definitive meaning. In the way that Beyonce gave us the iconic ‘Lemonade’ visual album in 2016, we hope to see at least a similar iconic visual album moment from afrobeats artists in 2023.

Music, NFTs, and the Metaverse

Live show ticket sales in 2022 showed the world that afrobeats artists have strong fan bases outside Africa in the UK, the US, Mexico, Asia, and other developed regions where the metaverse is a more prominent conversation among creatives. These foreign fans are willing to purchase NFTs of their favourite afrobeats artists, who seem relatively distant geographically and culturally. NFTs and other digital collectibles allow foreign fans to feel more connected to the brand and journey of their favourite afrobeats artist.

We have witnessed success among African NFT digital creators on the many digital NFT market platforms like the OpenSea and Nifty gateway, with Jacon Osinachi Igwe renowned as Africa's foremost crypto artist. Prince Igwe made news when he sold three NFTs for an equivalent of $75,000 in 10 days. This was a collaboration between him and Don Jazzy, the legendary producer and music business executive behind Maven Records, Africa’s foremost record label that has produced stars like D’banj, Don Jazzy, Tiwa Savage, Reekado Banks, Ayra Starr and more. The pieces Prince Igwe and Don Jazzy launched represented the confluence of afrobeat and art. With the emergence of NFT collections like Afrobeat Legend Cards, it would be a step ahead to see more afrobeat NFT spaces and collaborations.

Overall, in 2023, we expect more boundary-stretching collaborations between musicians and a wider array of creatives to produce addictive songs, jaw-dropping music videos, and amazing TikTok dances. We’re also looking forward to more awards, show-stopping performances, and all the fashion killers. Cheers to the songwriters, producers, and everyone who works to make the magic of afrobeats, Africa’s asiwaju.