Top 5 Afrobeats artists of 2022 who changed the game

Music is life; it is the food of the soul. While technology brings the world together as one global village, it is through music that we find our souls closely knit.

Over the decades, Africa has given the world a wide variety of original musical genres. With some of her music styles influenced by styles from other cultures, the continent has managed to create music that gets everyone on their feet.

One of the most recent musical genres to emerge from the continent is Afrobeats. Afrobeats is a loosely grouped genre of popular music that incorporates both African and Western music, with its roots in the West African nations of Ghana and Nigeria.

Hip-hop, house, jùju, ndombolo, hiplife, dancehall, soca, and R&B are among the genres that heavily impact this music style. Afrobeats, arguably the largest music genre in Africa right now, is dominated by Nigerian and Ghanaian artists, with Nigerian artists accounting for the majority.

The year 2022 proved to be yet another fantastic one for musicians that favored this upbeat and calming genre, with numerous of the songs going viral.

Here, we take a look at some of the top five Afrobeats artists whose songs gained massive audiences.

Black Sherif

Ghana’s Black Sherif is the youngest on this list. The twenty (20) year old came into the limelight in May 2021 with his song “First Sermon”. This was followed up with “Second Sermon” in July of the same year. Black Sherif later did a remix of the “Second Sermon” with Nigerian artist Burna Boy. In 2022, Black Sherif made another huge stride with his release of the single “Kwaku

the Traveller”. This song peaked at number one on the Nigerian TurnTable Top 50 list, number five on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart, and number two on the UK Afrobeats Singles Chart. It was also the first Ghanaian song to top the charts in Nigeria. It also rose to the top of the Spotify Nigeria Charts, with over 2.5 million Spotify streams and over 14.6 million Boomplay streams by April 20.

Kizz Daniel (Nigeria)

One Nigerian Artiste who earned popularity among Tiktokers is Kizz Daniel. Kizz Daniel is known for hit songs such “Woju” and “Yeba”. The year 2022 began with Kizz Daniel releasing “Buga (Lo Lo Lo)” which features Tekno. The song which was accompanied by a captivating dance style become an instant hit globally with dance challenges on Instagram and TikTok that saw prominent personalities such as Liberia’s President George Weah participating. As of the time of writing this article, the music video for the song put together by TG Omori has garnered 101 million plus views on Youtube. The song has also topped several charts having been the most streamed song on Shazam in the world. Close to the end of the year, Kizz Daniel released another thriller hit Cough (Odo) produced by Blaise Beatz which has already gone viral on Tiktok and Instagram with the official video earning over 5 million views on Youtube.

Wizkid (Nigeria)

Nigerian singer and songwriter Wizkid is widely acclaimed as far as music in the continent is concerned. The year 2022 has brought him enormous success. Wizkid became the first African musician in history to perform as the headlining act at the Rolling Loud Toronto hip-hop festival in September. In November 2022, Wizkid released a follow-up to his “Made in Lagos (2020)” album which he titled “More Love, Less Ego” featuring Ayra Starr, Skillibeng, Shenseea, Skepta, Naira Marley, and Don Toliver. This was put together by RCA Records and Starboy Entertainment with P2J, Kel-P, KDaGreat, Sammy Soso, P Priime, Juls, Kofo, and Euro handling the production.

Asake

Fast-rising Nigerian artist Asake gained popularity in 2020 with his hit song “Mr. Money,” which was followed by “Lady” in the same year. “Lady” went viral on social media and enjoyed massive airplay giving Asake the breakthrough he had needed since his debut in 2018. With the release of his first extended play (EP), “Ololade,” 2022 has been a considerably greater year for the artist. The popular tracks “Omo Ope,” which features Olamide, and “Sungba” can both be found on this EP. Asake’s debut studio album, “Mr. Money With the Vibe,” featuring the hit singles “Terminator,” “Peace Be unto You,” and the “Sungba” remix with Burna Boy, was released seven months after the release of his EP. The album has since been a commercial success globally. Asake secured a distribution deal with Empire in July. Since then, he has been on a worldwide tour for his debut album and has sold out London’s O2 Academy Brixton. He also earned an ambassadorial deal with the cryptocurrency platform, Roqqu, in October.

Camidoh (Ghana)

Ghanaian songwriter and singer Raphael Camidoh Kofi Attachie (known by the stage name Camidoh) has been around for a while now. It was, however, not until the release of his single “Sugarcane” in December 2021, that he gained prominence. “Sugarcane” went viral and featured in most videos by Ghanaian TikTok video creators. The song earned the fifth spot on Shazam’s top 200 most searched Afropop songs. He released a remix of the song on April 8, 2022, with King Promise, Mayorkun, and Nigerian-born British rapper Darkoo. The collaboration topped Nigeria’s Top 100 Music Chart on Apple Music in the first week of May, just one month after its release.