Emerging in the 2000s, Afrobeats is a popular style of West African music that employs polyrhythms and syncopation and draws inspiration from hip-hop, R&B, dancehall and more while incorporating ...

It took the combined talents of four Grammy winners, a symphony orchestra and a choir of African-American opera singers to make “The Woman King” resonate with the sounds of 19th-century West Africa.

African fans, Afrobeats enthusiasts, and everyone who likes underdog stories of artists working hard on their way to global recognition: rejoice! The Nigerian American superstar Davido, born David ...

Two iconic quotes from two legendary artists. The first represents the revolutionary power of African music that has been used to overcome colonial oppression. The second declares the artist’s pride ...

As a folk musician, Mon Rovîa has never been much of a planner. He didn’t plan on pursuing music as a career; he never imagined going on tour, nor does he map out the lyrics in his music that’s going ...

Amadou Bagayoko (1954-2025), iconic Malian guitarist, singer and composer of the famed duo Amadou & Mariam – known as “the blind couple of Mali” – passed away on 4 April in Bamako. He was 70. The ...

A master of the kora who worked with Herbie Hancock and Philip Glass, his career was powered as much by experimentation as by reverence for tradition. By Giovanni Russonello Foday Musa Suso, a griot, ...

Depending on where you are in the world, life after the death of physical music looks very different. In West Africa, the post-CD landscape was populated by market stalls selling SIM and micro-SD ...

These days, music nostalgia is showing up in more ways than one. As recording stars like Lady Gaga have older songs finding success in the present day, others like Gwen Stefani are considering ...

It is not uncommon for jazz artists to borrow from world music to enliven their pieces—adding a dash of spice as it were. It is even rarer (with Latin jazz being an exception) for musicians to dive ...

We're rolling out the 50 tracks that are the most foundational, influential and popular within Afrobeats. Over the last decade, Afrobeats has made significant inroads in the global music industry, ...