IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO VIEW TIKTOK, INSTAGRAM Reels or YouTube shorts without glimpsing visuals of some form or another of a foot-tapping dance number gone viral, from the Yahyuppiyah (Uncle Waffles) or Unavailable dance challenges (Davido and Musa Keys) more recently, to the 2020 smash hit Jerusalema, which kept the world dancing to its energetic beats through the Covid-19 lockdown periods.
There is no other way to say this but simply – when it comes to music, Africa is firmly in the global spotlight.
When FORBES AFRICA looked at the star-studded entertainment industry and its leading protagonists in 2022, the focal point was the radical shift of the music sector from a continental perspective; the rise of Amapiano and Afrobeats, the use of social media to garner trends across Africa as well as the international uptake this could potentially herald. Evidently, the themes of the conversation this year are the same but have now shifted onto a wider and more prolific global paradigm.
A significant reason behind the unprecedented growth of African music has to do with the power and gravitas of social media. The influx of fresh talent in the industry is evidence of that. Ten years ago, this would have seemed impossible for artists on the continent.
Davin Phillips, Executive Director at Celebrity Services Africa (CSA), an agency that specializes in brand marketing in the culture and entertainment space, says that social media is the reason the rest of the world has been able to reach African artists.
This story is from the October - November 2023 edition of Forbes Africa.
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This story is from the October - November 2023 edition of Forbes Africa.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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