By Emilie Pons
Tested, approved and trusted. That's the title of one of the famous hits of AfroBeats Reggae star Burna Boy.
It could be his calling card, having closed 2023 as the highest-streamed music act in Sub-Saharan Africa with 16.8 million monthly listeners for the second consecutive year.
Burna Boy was also co-headliner at the 2023 UEFA Champions League final in Istanbul, reaching 450 million broadcast viewers worldwide.
The other artists from Sub-Saharan Africa keeping him company on the Spotify charts are Asake, Davido, and Omay Lay, all Nigerians. Then there is The Weeknd, a Canadian act of Ethiopian descent.
South African DJ Black Coffee had a sold-out Madison Square Garden performance last November that many described as historic.
Brahim el Mazned, the Moroccan founder of the Visa for Music festival in Rabat, tells TRT Afrika that these musicians are the driving force behind the arrival of African music on the world stage. So much so that the Recording Academy has created a new category called the "Best African Music Performance Award" for the first time.
This award will be presented at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in 2024, acknowledging "recordings that utilise unique local expressions from across the African continent that highlight regional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic musical traditions".
The category encompasses African popular music, or Afropop, but is open to all genres.
The current nominees are Asake and Olamide for their song Amapiano, Burna Boy with City Boys, Davido for Unavailable, Ayra Starr with Rush and Tyla for Water.
Cradle of innovation
"A bunch of new African artists emerged after the pandemic," explains el Mazned. "There is quality here."
He feels that what sets these African artists apart is their originality. "They have departed from the usual stereotypes; they are not just making folk music or the usual tunes. They have embraced modernity."
Ivorian drummer Yann Bana believes African music has improved and relentlessly innovated to make its place globally.
"Many Africans today win the biggest awards, which wasn't the case until a few years ago," he tells TRT Afrika. "There is hope. African artists are now featured alongside Western artists, and they manage to stand out."
Bana is thrilled that many international artists want to collaborate with African performers. One of his favourite YouTube videos is Davido's Na Money, which features The Cavemen and Benin world star Angelique Kidjo.
Bana's album in the making, Komando, aims to fuse Afrobeats with jazz.
Scope for collaboration
For Grammy-nominated composer Amayo, who grew up in Nigeria, "many opportunities" are opening up, especially in Nigeria and Lagos, where new record labels are being created.
Like Bana, Amayo reckons Africa so far is lagging in musical collaborative culture.
So, will the newly created category of awards divide African musicians instead of uniting them?
Industry experts see the music scene becoming more encompassing — beyond single and potentially divisive categories such as "world music".
"It is a question of ethnicity as much as one of perceived authenticity and category," writes music critic Ammar Kalia in his 2019 Guardian essay, "So flawed and problematic: Why the term 'world music' is dead".
Some are now grappling with the question: Has the Recording Academy commodified and appropriated authenticity with its new African Performance category?
While el Mezned and Bana rejoice in African music's new and original endeavours, Amayo is concerned. He believes the new category will make everybody try and "sound like other artists".
"As long as the people funding music are getting what they want, it will influence decisions," he fears.
This new exposure to Western and global markets and media could impact the writing and production of African music and alter ideas around quality compositions. It may be the continuation of post-colonial alienation or even a new form of Western colonisation of African sounds.
Bana does not think of this evolution as negating African sounds. He wants to both remember his musical roots and experiment with fusion. "When you listen to African music, you know it comes from Africa," he says. "Sounds and rhythms are different. We can innovate with a little Western touch, albeit without forgetting we come from Africa. That's what a lot of artists are doing."
Although Amayo is sceptical of the new Grammy category, he remains optimistic in general. New trends, he thinks, are opportunities for collaborations.
The new connections between Africa and the West are also felt in media coverage. Africa features in the US weekly show "60 Minutes", which, for the very first time, honoured Gnawa music.
The episode featured maâlem (master) Mokthar Ghania at his house in Essaouira and American jazz musicians like Hakim Sulaiman and Jaleel Show, who have both performed at the Gnawa World Music Festival in Morocco.
Lost legends
While 2023 has been a year of exciting changes and transformations for African music, it has also been a year of sudden and unexpected losses.
Nigerian rapper Oladips passed away at the young age of 28, while 36-year-old South African singer and guitarist Zahara succumbed to liver disease.
An era in music ended with the death of Ethiopian nun and pianist Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, who was 99. She is acknowledged as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Ahmed Naji Sa'ad, a Somali music legend also passed away at age 84.
Sudan lost three brilliant vocalists: Shaden Gardood (also known as Shaden Muhammad al-Hassan) was killed in the Sudanese conflict. She was only 37. Two older, impactful Sudanese vocalists – 80-year-old singer and oud player Mohammed al Amin and 78-year-old Mohamed Mirghani – passed away during the year.
Their legacy remains alive, creating a solid foundation of tradition for new and innovative African sounds to shape global music and culture in the New Year.
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