Top 10 African Artists to keep your eye on in 2022.
- Breaking records
- Huge collaborations
- Trend setting singles
- Multiple award winners
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that the African continent is delivering superstars in short order to the global music industry. They are channeling their sounds and narratives and applying their culture and heritage to develop trends that are finding space on the global stage. With streaming, downloads and online video views breaking records, the arrival of the African Global superstar is no longer a pipe dream, but a movement. The WIRE powered by CSA presents the top 10 African Artists to keep your eye on in 2022.
Country: Nigeria
Genre: Afrobeats
Breakout single: ‘You’ 2019
Cool Factor: All five tracks on Omah’s debut EP, ‘Get Layd’, reached the top 15 on the Nigerian Apple Music charts while he also won the ‘Next Rated’ award at the 2020 Headies hip hop awards. That same year, his track, ‘Bad Influence’, became the most streamed Nigerian song on Apple Music. Omah Lay became the first artist highlighted by Apple’s ‘Africa Rising’ Campaign while he was also included in BBC Radio’s 1Xstra’s annual ‘Hot for 2021’ list.
Upcoming projects: Omah Lay and Burna Boy took to Instagram on January 13th, teasing their fans about a potential collaboration. It is also rumored that a collaboration with Wizkid is on the way.
Country: Nigeria
Genre: Afro-pop
Breakout single: ‘Melo’ 2020
Cool Factor:
Davido signed her to his label Davido Music Worldwide (DMW), making her the first and only female signed to one of Nigeria’s biggest record labels. She released her debut EP ‘Alari’ with DMW in August last year and quickly became the face of Spotify’s ‘Sizzlers’ playlist.
Upcoming projects:
She dropped a teaser of a live performance lyric video of her song ‘Years Ago’, letting her fans know that “there is a lot more on the way”.
Country: Tanzania
Genre: Bongo Flava
Breakout single: ‘Nenda’ 2021
Cool Factor:
Mac Voice became the first signee of Tanzanian star Ryvanny’s new record label, Next Level Music, in September 2021.
Most recent projects:
His latest single, ‘I miss you’, featuring Zuchu, was released on Friday, 14 January.
Country: Angola
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Breakout single: ‘Parvos’ 2016
Cool Factor: With multiple awards including Top Radio Luanda best rap song, Most Popular Song and Best Group (won 4 times consecutively since 2016), Mobbers are taking their rap into the Lusophone world.
Recent projects: Mobbers released their latest EP, ‘Limited Edition’, at the end of last year.
Country: Nigeria
Genre: Afropop/RnB
Breakout single: ‘Tiff’ 2014
Cool factor:
Simi (33) won the Most Promising Act to Watch category at the 2015 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. Her single, ‘Simisola’, peaked at #5 on the Billboard World Albums chart in September 2017. Simi was nominated in six NET Honours People’s Choice 2021 categories, the highest for any individual this year. She received nominations for Most Popular Musician – Female, Most Searched Musician – Female, Most Popular Couple alongside her husband, Adekunle Gold, Most Played Song – Pop for Duduke, Most Played Song – R&B for Running To You, and Most Played Song – Hip Hop for Know You.
Country: Senegal
Genre: Jolofbeats
Breakout single: ‘Yitma’ 2019
Cool factor:
‘Yitma’ was nominated in the category “Musical revelation of the year” 2019 at the Raaya Music AwardsHis collaboration with Iss 814 on ‘Xool Ma ci Bët’ was included in Music in Africa’s two-part playlist of Africa’s most popular music in 2021.
Upcoming projects:
His first performance for the year will take place in St Louis, Senegal, this month.
Country: Nigeria
Genre: Afrobeats
Breakout single: ‘Away’ 2020 (Troniq Music)
Cool Factor:
After Bizzle Osikoya signed him to his label, The Plug Entertainment in 2018, Davido invited him to perform at the ‘City of David’ concert in Lagos in 2018. Oxlade (24) then opened for Wizkid in London at the Star Boy Fest in 2019. His track, ‘Away’, appeared on Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Songs of 2020 list. Drake added a screenshot of him listening to the song on IG Story, garnering 3 million streams in 24 hours after the post. Oxlade is now a regular on the UK Afrobeats Singles Chart.
Upcoming projects:
Oxlade is included in the Coko Festival 2022 lineup, Manchester’s largest Afrofusion Festival, taking place 20th March 2022.
Country: Ghana
Genre: Afrobeats and Highlife
Breakout single: ‘Angela’ 2017
Cool Factor:
Kuami (24) won the 2018 New Artist award in the Ghana Music Awards and Ghana Music Awards UK as well as the Most Promising Artist in Africa award from AFRIMA. He received 7 nominations at the 2019 Ghana Music Awards and went on to win the gongs Album of the Year, Producer of the Year and Highlife Artist of the Year. He won Artist of the Year and High-life Artist of the Year at the 2020 Ghana Music Awards.
Country: Nigeria
Genre: Afropop
Breakout single: ‘Addicted’ 2019
Cool factor:
Guchi (24) celebrated 1 million views on YouTube for ‘Scatter My Head’ ft Zlatan. Her track ‘Jennifer’ achieved 20 million views on Youtube and is nominated for an AFRIMA award in the Continental Category ‘African Fans Favourite’.
Country: Trinidad and Tobago
Genre: Trinibad
Breakout single: ‘African Dancer’ 2019
Recent projects:
Coutain (25) released his latest EP, ‘G Syde Tape’, this month.
C.S.A.’s monthly cultural portal, The WIRE connects the dots of culture. With concise stories, many with video content, take a premium dive into the world of African entertainment & cultural fluidity. It’s one thing to be hip to what’s happening but it is another to know why.
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