African music is now getting more recognition around the world. Musicians in Africa are experiencing a higher wave of honor and respect amongst their peers, and even in the music award industries.
There are various sites for music streaming. The popular ones are Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, Amazon Music Unlimited and a few more. Let us now consider African musicians that have hit the one billion stream mark.
- WIZKID
Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, is a Nigerian artiste. He is one of the most successful musicians in Nigeria and his success seems to be making ripples around the world as well. He is the first African with over one billion streams on Apple Music. He has also hit over one billion views on Spotify and YouTube as well. His album “Made In Lagos” is one of the artiste’s most recent hits.
- CKAY
Another Nigerian artiste, Chukwuka Ekweani, popularly known as CKay, has also hit over a billion streams on Spotify. He got these views with a single song, ‘Love Nwantiti”, making it a record breaking stream for any Nigerian artiste’s single song. The song was released in 2019 and it reached the 1 billion mark in 2022.
- BURNABOY
Burnaboy, also commonly referred to as the African Giant, The third Nigerian on our list is a Grammy award winner. In September 2021, he became the first Nigerian artiste to get a billion streams on YouTube. Some of his most streamed songs are “On the Low,” “Ye,” and the African Giant Album.
- FALLY IPUPA
Fally Ipupa is a Congolese, a giant in the Congo. He has over a billion streams on YouTube with his most viewed music videos including “Un Coup”, “Dadju’, “Eloko Oyo”, “A Flye” and a few more. He has been nominated and won a lot of international awards, like Grammy Awards, MTV Africa Music Awards, BET Awards, and MTV Europe Music Awards.
- DIAMOND PLATNUMZ
Diamond Platnumz is a Tanzanian singer. He is the first African with a billion streams on YouTube, which he achieved in 2020. His major hits include “Yope Remix”, “Nana”, “Inama”, “African Beauty”, and “Marry You”. Each of these songs features other top class singers.
- AYA NAKAMURA
The only female singer on our list is Aya Nakaruma from Mali. She has over a billion streams on YouTube and Spotify. Although she is mostly based in France, her African roots are very much evident in her singing style. ‘Djadja’, ‘girlfriends’, and ‘pookie’ are some of the songs that propelled her. “Djadja” alone has recorded over 800 million views on Youtube and over 320 million streams on Spotify.
- AKON
Akon is an African icon. With over 90 nominations and more than 30 awards won, Akon can boast of records like MTV and Billboard’s Artiste of the Year awards, amongst many others. He is a Singaporean-American singer who spent the majority of his adolescence and adulthood in the United States.He has over 4 billion streams on Youtube.
CONCLUSION
Africans are rising, the African music is trending more and more. This article has explored the Africans that have gone over one billion streams in their music career. Which singer is your favorite?
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African music is gaining in popularity around the world. African musicians are being treated with more dignity and respect among their peers, as well as in the music award industry.