Tag: decade of amapiano

Amapiano’s Origins: Taking Root at Home, Then Spreading Seeds Globally

June 13, 2024

The sound of Amapiano is like prolonging moments when, in South African townships, the sounds of everyday living merge with the music that forms the bedrock of daily life there. Before dawn, a hymn sung while sweeping might match the rhythm at a nearby lala vuka (all nighter). One afternoon, the rain overhead might intensify to match an aunty or uncle’s favorite part of a jazz song. Nobody’s dog could bark an ad-lib to the bassline playing in a passing car. Amapiano plucks what is almost in the township air and originates sound, dance, fashion, lingo, and overall culture from that.

Amapiano was invented in the townships at the outskirts of South Africa’s towns and cities. Known as kasi in slang (derived from the Afrikaans lokasie), the township was created by apartheid spatial planning to house Black people. Dikasi (plural) were designed to be barren places where nothing would grow. But instead, South African townships became greenhouses for culture—especially music—to germinate, take root, and become sources of life for the oppressed people living in them. 

Amapiano borrows its keys and melodies from jazz and gospel, its drums and tempo from house music and diBacardi, while Kwaito loans Amapiano its basslines and harmonies.

Jazz music grew in South Africa in step with its popularization in the United States. It became not only a source of entertainment, solace, and escape, but also an instrument with which Black South Africans fought against apartheid. You need only look at the names of some current and past Amapiano acts to make the connection between jazz and Amapiano—Jazzi Disciples, Mapara A Jazz, and Mr. Jazziq are a few. One of the other ways Amapiano borrows its melodies from jazz is by reworking South African jazz standards. Focalistic does this to great effect by using the melody from guitarist Jimmy Dlulu’s “Winds of Change” on his Tiya Mfana release with DJ Tshegu.

Gospel music, especially choral, has been composed and sung in churches, homes, at funerals, celebrations, and anywhere else a higher power needs to be summoned in South Africa. Some of Amapiano’s most popular singers developed their voices in the church. For example, vocalist Babalwa M, who frequently collaborates with Private School Amapiano Dean of Faculty Kelvin Momo, told True Love magazine, “I lived in a Christian house, I obviously used to go to church. So, we used to have youth services and we’d have an opportunity to showcase your talents.” 

Kwaito music was the sound of a generation both witnessing and creating a nonracial, democratic South Africa. The slowed-down dance songs from across the world matched with young South African vocalists in the 1990s, and together they created Kwaito, the iconic sound of the country’s liberation.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Afro, Deep, and Tribal House became popular as access to records from outside the country became increasingly available and affordable. This helped to develop South African dance music’s groove sensibility. And when diBacardi entered the scene, mushrooming from Pitori, the greater Pretoria area, it also grew into an important influence on the South African dance music scene.

The styles of music that Amapiano borrows from are still popular in South African townships and continue to cross-pollinate, influencing each other while remaining firmly grounded in their own respective histories.

“The last time we saw a uniquely South African genre paint a clear picture of the state of South African groove culture was with Kwaito spearheaded by youth. What Amapiano has managed to bring with it from the ground up locally and eventually globally,  is admirable, not only from a music point of view but also cultures’’, says Phiona Okumu, Head of Music at Spotify Sub-Saharan Africa. 

At first, Amapiano had a divisive ethos. Little was known about this movement and the music at the center of it by observers outside its circles of initiates. Generally, Amapiano punters were notorious for brazenly pursuing epicurean excess. Kabza De Small and Lehleza released the “Amabele Shaya Remix” music video as the tide began to turn for this style of music. For outsiders, that music video was a glimpse into a culture that was seductively inaccessible. “Amabele ebusweni bendoda / Amabele ebusweni bendoda / Amabele ebusweni bendoda / Amabele ebusweni bendoda” (roughtly translated to “breasts on a man’s face”) a tank-topped, sweaty Leehleza repeats the song’s refrain to partygoers in a nondescript warehouse. Many wanted to be in that video, while also happy to be a safe distance away.

The greater South African population had another taste of this sweet taboo in Semi Tee, Miano, and Kamu Dee’s “Labantwana Ama Uber,” in which the chorus is a thinly veiled reference to drug use and sex. Amapiano music was being lapped up and danced to by all South Africans and creeds by the time Mapara a Jazz, Colano, and Ntosh Gazi’s “John Vuli Gate” became a hit single, dance trend, and the reason for the most modest and upright citizens of the Rainbow Nation to collectively clutch their beaded necklaces and kiss their teeth in disapproval.

Since then, the Amapiano movement has evolved in different directions. Its dominance of mainstream music in South Africa and entry into the global dance music arena made it necessary for producers and vocalists to consider different styles of Amapiano to fit different occasions. 

Over the past decade, Amapiano has watered and warmed the wildest dreams of its artists, most of whom come from the underserved townships at the outskirts of the Gauteng province’s cities. And where there were scraggly shrubs of careers not so long ago, there is now a forest of artists, managers, choreographers and dancers, stylists, content producers, and other professions beginning to thicken all thanks to the Amapiano movement.

And while Amapiano developed musically, it also sprouted branches in dance, fashion, lingo and overall culture that have made Amapiano a movement. This is what is truly exciting about the movement, is that while the music continues to spearhead it, the Amapiano movement is fast becoming a way of living founded on the idea of making something from very little, backing dreams with hard work, and having the time of your life while doing it.

Why Amapiano Wins Hearts and Minds as It Travels the Globe

June 13, 2024

Amapiano is a force to be reckoned with on the global music stage, and this is thanks to its influence on popular culture. “Spotify provides a home for Amapiano to grow, with 55% of the music getting played from outside South Africa,” says Phiona Okumu, Head of Music at Spotify Sub-Saharan Africa. 

The heroes of the Amapiano movement are also getting deserved recognition. From Uncle Waffles being the first Amapiano DJ to perform on the Coachella main stage to singer-songwriter Tyla earning a Grammy, this distinctly South African dance music is now being adopted into mainstream culture across the world.

As the sound evolves and its thriving culture spreads globally, it’s important to unravel the crucial moments that stimulate this global success and contribute to Amapiano’s over 1.4 billion streams in 2023 on Spotify. 

Africa embraces Amapiano

Amapiano got to the rest of the world by traveling through Africa. As this township house sound came to define Johannesburg’s nightlife culture, musicians all over the continent tuned in. Its journey began with West and East African artists experimenting with the sound. Some visited South Africa to work with local Amapiano acts, while others added and infused Amapiano elements to their productions.

“The results of these experiments show up in our data today. Cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt, Lusaka, and Gaborone stream the most Amapiano outside of South Africa,” says Phiona.

Ghanaian producer Juls released “Soweto Blues” with South Africa’s Busiswa. Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage gave “Dangerous Love” the Amapiano treatment with a remix from South African producer De Mthuda. Rema’s hit single “Woman” brings Amapiano drums and saxophone together with kicks and percussion from Afrobeats. Wizkid’s “Bad To Me” and “2 Sugar” are songs that showcase the sonic embrace between the two genres.

“Back then these songs gave more artists across the continent permission to make Amapiano their own,” says Phiona. Amapiano’s DBN Gogo says this is important because music can build a shared understanding across cultures “when people make it their own and try to merge it with their own genres.”

This is how Bongopiano emerged from Tanzania, where Swahili lyrics on hypnotic dance beats give Amapiano an East African twist. Moroccan DJ Flomine says, “When you mix Amapiano with traditional Moroccan music [Gnawa], it connects people. And when you introduce live instruments, people just love it because they feel like we are exchanging culture.”

Television takes Amapiano from SA to the USA

The small screen enhances Amapiano’s cultural currency. South African drama series like Youngins use Amapiano soundtracks to bring the rebellious and trendy energy of the high school drama to life. The show’s dance scenes wouldn’t work without the log drum-peppered beats, which capture the show’s spirit and make it relatable to its Gen Z audience.

Amapiano also anchored Kokota, a drama set in Mamelodi, one of the Pretoria townships where the genre is said to have started out. The show follows the story of a preacher’s son and his journey of becoming a musician. Its use of location, Sepitori (a form of Setswana slang), and fashion celebrate the genre by showing life from an aspiring artist’s point of view.

“Directors are taking advantage of the genre’s international influence by telling stories about the origins of Amapiano,” says Phiona. “South Africa’s favourite music export is also infiltrating TV shows in North America.”

The Jennifer Hudson Show host and EGOT winner Jennifer Hudson got South Africa hyped when the Biko’s Manna band taught her the viral “Tshwala Bam” dance. Who can forget Tyla’s U.S. TV debut performance of “Water”on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon? Yet another moment that cemented Amapiano as a global cultural entity.

True to its essence even when far from home

Amapiano influences culture across the Atlantic thanks to events like AmaFest, an Amapiano festival for South African and British performers in the United Kingdom. Afro Nation has now made Portugal a destination for African and European Amapiano fans alike thanks to its Piano People stage. 

These shows are a sign of the impact the South African sound is making on the global music scene. Their ongoing success reflects how much different cultures love the sound, even if they may not understand the lyrics. Small wonder, then, that among the top countries streaming Amapiano in the last 10 years are the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, and France. 

The genre’s earliest artists, like MFR Souls, Kelvin Momo, and Scorpion Kings, along with its latest pioneers, DBN Gogo, Uncle Waffles, and Kamo Mphela, are headliners at these festivals, showing that Amapiano’s global reach won’t stop it from staying true to its roots and essential sounds.

Phiona’s reminder is that it’s thanks to “dedicated artists that the genre’s borrowed blend of diBacardi, Kwaito, and jazz are here to stay. While it influences and adapts to different regions, Amapiano will always call South Africa home.”

Piano to the World: Amapiano’s Evolution From Underground Movement to Global Sensation

June 13, 2024

Today Amapiano is everywhere. Some of the world’s biggest artists, including Beyoncé, have spoken about being Amapiano fans and have put out tracks featuring Amapiano artists. In 2023, Beyoncé even played Amapiano legend Uncle Waffles’ song “Tanzania” during her Renaissance world tour. The genre also got its first Grammy in 2024, with Tyla’s “Water” taking home the “Best African Music Performance” award. 

But that popularity wasn’t always guaranteed. When Amapiano first emerged on the streets of South Africa’s townships a decade ago, many derided it. It was seen as something for people from low-income areas and was given little chance of achieving mainstream popularity. As more and more young people learned about the genre and spread its songs and videos via social media, however, it was set firmly on the path from underground movement to global sensation. 

“Young people have always driven big shifts in the music sector,” says Jodie Tabisher, Spotify’s Artist, Label and Partnerships Manager for South Africa. “But with Amapiano, their impact has been and continues to be especially significant.” 

It’s an assertion borne out by Spotify’s internal data, which shows that 40% of Amapiano streams in 2023 came from people aged 18 to 24. A further 22% came from people aged 25 to 29. It hasn’t hurt that the biggest artists in Amapiano are more or less the same age as their listeners. Even a genre pioneer like Kabza De Small, for example, is only 31 years old. 

For those artists, Amapiano hasn’t just provided a chance to connect with young artists, though. It’s also provided an avenue where they can express themselves fully and authentically. 

“Amapiano was kind of like a breath of fresh air, the light of the sun, something that was close to our heart,” says 27-year-old rapper Focalistic, who plays in the Amapiano space. “Just being from Africa, we’re obsessed with saying things in our own voice right now. It’s how you make an imprint.” 

“Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a front-row seat to Amapiano’s early growth and its later global explosion,” says Phiona Okumu, Spotify’s Head of Music for Sub-Saharan Africa. “One of the things that’s always stood out to me, and which I think has helped the genre achieve its global standing, is just how distinctly South African it sounds, looks, and feels. Just by being authentic, Amapiano music and artists channel the most infectious parts of Mzansi dance culture.” 

While young people have been the biggest drivers of Amapiano over the past decade, its appeal now transcends racial and social boundaries. 

“When you get to America, the biggest thing from South Africa is Nelson Mandela, and that’s because he stood for his country,” says Focalistic. “That’s what Amapiano is: It’s about representing where we come from, and I think it’s a blessing that people relate to it around the world. At the same time, they can hear the emotion. I think emotion sells it more than just words.” 

Young Stunna, the 26-year-old singer best known for his hit singles “Bopha” and “Adiwele,” concurs. 

“With Amapiano we’re united,” he says. “I was inspired by artists like Aymos because they knew how to put a story inside the music.”

That ability to unify people might help explain why, despite its growing international popularity, Amapiano remains most popular in its home market. According to Spotify data, 55% of all Amapiano streams globally came from South Africa in 2023. It also made up 78% of all streams in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Ultimately, it’s unlikely that Amapiano would have achieved its current trajectory if its creators didn’t produce tracks with infectious dance beats. As singer and dancer Kamo Mphela explains, you cannot separate Amapiano from dance. 

“Music doesn’t move without dance,” she says. “That’s personally my perspective that it is its own language, it’s very universal, I don’t think both can exist without each other.” 

Backing this assertion up is the significant role that things like Amapiano dance challenges on social media have played in driving the genre’s popularity. There have been instances of dance challenges’ leading to the discovery of Amapiano songs and artists and assisting in increasing their streaming numbers, such as Tyla’s “Water” or Uncle Waffles’ “Yahyuppiyah.” 

Small wonder, then, that many of today’s most popular Amapiano artists are multitalented. 

“When you look at South African music,” Mphela adds, “there are people who sing the cha-cha, there are the DJs, and there are the wafflers who DJ and dance, but there are quite a few that actually sing and dance, so that’s just me being smart about it and that’s the gateway for me.” 

Phiona concludes that much of Amapiano’s success is built on what came before it. But, she adds, the success of Amapiano artists should also give South Africans confidence in their own ability to succeed.  

“Never would we have thought that piano would go to the places that Kwaito dreamed of all those years ago. It’s happening because we stuck to our guns,” she says. “We know we’re fly, we have the dances, we have the songs, we have the beats, we have everything.”

From Beats to the Streets to the Catwalks: How Amapiano Enabled a Lifestyle

June 13, 2024

Spend enough time browsing music and entertainment news sites, and you’ll find no shortage of articles about Amapiano’s decade-long rise from underground genre to global phenomenon—in addition, articles about international megastars’ collaborating with Amapiano artists or featuring their songs on world tours. 

But Amapiano is far more than just a music genre. It has grown in popularity and become a lifestyle with significant influences on dance and fashion. And just like the music itself grew over 153K% in exports from 2014 to 2023, those influencers are also going global.

Perhaps the best exemplifier of this is dance. As with Kwaito, one of the biggest influences on Amapiano, dance is inseparable from the genre. From its early inception on the streets of South Africa’s townships, the genre has always lent itself to innovation around dance and movement. 

It’s a link that Amapiano artists are keenly aware of, too. 

“Music doesn’t move without dance,” says Kamo Mphela, an Amapiano artist behind the hit song “Dalie.” “That’s personally my perspective—that it is its own language, it’s very universal. I don’t think either can exist without each other.” 

The roots of the dances we associate with date back to the Pantsula tradition, which emerged in South Africa’s townships in the 1950s and 1960s. Unlike its antecedents, however, Amapiano has been able to draw on social media both as a source of inspiration and as a vehicle for taking the music and dances to a global audience. 

Social media dance challenges in particular have been crucial to Amapiano’s worldwide growth. There have been instances of dance challenges leading to the discovery of Amapiano songs and artists and assisting in increasing their streaming numbers, such as Uncle Waffles’ “Yahyuppiyah” or Tyler ICU’s “Mnike.” On Spotify, both tracks are in the top five on the most- streamed Amapiano tracks and the top-exported Amapiano tracks lists per data from the past 10 years. 

These dance challenges continue to grab the attention of high-profile figures around the world, too. In March 2024, for example, Jason Derulo took part in the viral Tshwala Bam dance challenge. That put him in the company of celebrities like Ciara, Jamie Foxx, Kelly Rowland, and Jay Z, who’ve participated in previous challenges. 

That dance heritage has helped inform the fashion associated with Amapiano. While there’s no sense of the homogeneity associated with some genres, there are a few common motifs. Among men, bucket hats, which call back to the Kwaito era, are common sights in Amapiano hotspots, for example. But you’re also likely to see canvas sneakers, Carvela moccasins, and Lacoste golf shirts. Women, meanwhile, wear leggings, joggers, bodycon dresses, or loose-fitting pants. 

Accessories are also important to Amapiano fashion. Chunky gold jewelry, layered necklaces, and statement earrings are all commonly sported accessories among Amapiano artists and fans. 

Amapiano fashion isn’t afraid to borrow from international influences while containing elements that are uniquely South African. You can expect to see designers influenced by the genre incorporating traditional South African prints and silhouettes into their work. 

For the artists, the unabashed South Africanness of every aspect of Amapiano is something worth celebrating. After all, Amapiano’s 2.7 billion-plus streams over the last 10 years can be attributed to its authenticity. 

“That’s what Amapiano is,” says rapper Focalistic. “It’s about representing where we come from, and I think it’s a blessing that people relate to it around the world.” 

Ultimately, however, this blend of music, dance, and fashion speaks most powerfully to Amapiano’s celebration of self-expression. 

“One of the most affirming parts of watching Amapiano explode over the past decade is seeing how people use it for self-expression,” says Phiona Okumu, Spotify Head of Music for sub-Saharan Africa. 

It’s something she believes will help keep the Amapiano ball rolling for a long time to come.

Women in Amapiano

June 13, 2024

From the music studio to the dance challenge, from the lifestyle to the mpahla (slang for fashion), women have played a critical role in shaping and giving direction to the Amapiano movement. Women who are essential to Amapiano’s success do not enjoy the comparative success of their male counterparts even though Spotify recorded an 87% growth in the streams of female Amapiano artists in 2023 compared to 2022. 

Despite the effort, passion, skills, and talent that women have and continue to contribute to Amapiano’s success, Spotify data shows that the top 10 most-streamed Amapiano artists are still men.

There are challenges that women in the global music sector face, which in the context of South Africa’s youngest dance music style have become unique to South African music. To meet these challenges and work toward solutions, it is helpful for them to see positive examples of women whose careers dispel preconceived ideas about women in music. Also, creative solutions can be applied to. Indeed, the voices of women in Amapiano must be supported, celebrated, and amplified. 

There is limited knowledge of female Amapiano producers during Amapiano’s early development. When most Amapiano songs being released were instrumental, women were part of a core audience that attended events, shared the music, and advocated for the style within and outside of Amapiano circles. These contributions might be unknown, but it’s vital that they’re not ignored. 

When Amapiano songs began including vocals, female vocalists played an important role in composing catchy choruses and creating phrases that the growing movement could rally behind. Kamo Mphela and Bontle Smith directed the aspirant ethos of Amapiano to Sandton when they sang, “Ba re shebile, ba re galela, chomi areyeng Sandton,” the chorus on the 2019 Sandton release by Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa. Similarly, Sandy Mrd captured the aspirations of many young South Africans when she sang on Dubai and also created a catchphrase that is still popular half a decade later. 

Sha Sha’s “Tender Love” has amassed more than 6.5 million listens on Spotify since its 2019 release, and her vocal presence on subsequent Amapiano releases is emblematic of a shift toward mainstream acceptance. Her singing exerts an identifiable influence on today’s Amapiano singers.

The successful career trajectories of DBN Gogo, Kamo Mphela, and Uncle Waffles in particular  demonstrate how taking the lead on releases has been extemporaneous with that of the Amapiano movement in South Africa and globally.

In 2022, DBN Gogo became a Spotify RADAR artist, enjoying editorial support, marketing, and promotion of her music locally and abroad. Her subsequent being named EQUAL Africa’s March Ambassador and mint’s Artists To Watch for 2024, alongside Uncle Waffles, proved to be a testament to the power of women in Amapiano.  

Today, DBN Gogo has five tracks that have contributed to the export of Amapiano to various territories around the world. “When it all began,” DBN Gogo told Bubblegumclub, “we never expected it to blow up the way it did. Piano was for us, and now it’s literally for the world. I wish I could look into the future and tell you exactly how crazy it’s going to be, but I have to wait and see just like everyone else.” Today, uMa ka Ma (mother’s mother), as she is known to fans, is headlining major events on the global dance music circuit. 

Kamo Mphela not only channeled her popularity as a dancer on social media platforms to global musical success, but she also laid a pipeline for other women to follow. Reflecting on the role that technology has played in her career, Mphela says, “Now technology has made it possible for you to be a boss girl without a male cosign. At first it was always about girls singing about going to Dubai. Now people are singing (scat) on a song.” With 2023’s Dalie, Mphela secured a top 10 all-time Amapiano song on Spotify. She is also in the top 20 of Spotify’s most-streamed Amapiano artists from the past decade.

Uncle Waffles has helped dispel the sexist ideas about women being able to hold their own behind the decks. Since her career-launching viral moment where she’s DJing an event that had partygoers enthusiastically chanting, “Waffles, we want to party,” she has demonstrated talent and grit, and become a sought-after DJ in the U.S., Western Europe, and the U.K. She has also become a successful artist, with two tracks, “Yahyuppiyah” (ft. Pcee, EeQue & Chley) and “Tanzania” (ft. Sino Msolo and Boibizza), that have helped export Amapiano to the world. 

The female pioneers of the Amapiano movement have put paid to bigoted ideas about perseverance, musical skills, and the work ethic women have. And as the women in Amapiano amass accolades and reach new heights, they inspire the younger generation of female artists that now know whatever they dream is possible.