Ye, formerly Kanye West was the most streamed living U.S. based artist in all of Africa for 2022 according to MRC Data’s global music report obtained by WMV on Wednesday January 11.
The report spotlights Africa as an emerging music market and examines how artists from the region are performing elsewhere.
Leading the most streamed international artists in Africa 2022 list from the U.S., is deceased rapper Juice World, followed by West, Kodak Black, Pop Smoke and Roddy Rich.
From the U.K., Adele is the most streamed in African, followed by Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. While from France, Booba is out front followed by Dadju, David Guetta, Niska and Tayc.
Other findings in the MRC Data peport on Africa are that even with the popularity of Burna Boy, Wizkid and Tems and others, the music coming from the continent makes up only .05% of global streaming consumption for 2021.
Last December Wizkid became the first African artist to be certified Diamond in the U.S. with his feature on the 2016 single “One Dance” by Drake.
The single from Drake’s 4th studio album Views was previously certified 8x Multi-Platinum September 25, 2019 by. It is also certified Diamond in France (233,333) and Canada (800,000).
The track reached number one in 15 countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, becoming Drake’s first number-one single in all 15 countries as the lead artist. It topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for 10 non-consecutive weeks and became the joint-second longest consecutive number one in the UK Singles Chart with 15 consecutive weeks at the top.
Subsequently, Wizkid became the first Nigerian artist to (chart on and) top the US Billboard Hot 100. “One Dance” became the second dancehall song of 2016 to top the Billboard Hot 100 after Rihanna’s “Work” which also featured Drake.
After being named Billboard’s 2016 Song of the Summer it quickly sold 2 million copies in the US by December, thus being the fifth-best-selling song of the year.
“One Dance” was the best-performing single worldwide of 2016 and is one of the best-selling digital singles of all-time.
Wizkid’s “Made in Lagos”, the afro-fusion album was certified gold by the RIAA as of August 25 in 2022.
Released October 30,2020, the P2J executive produced project becomes the first African album to be certified Gold in USA(500,000).
Burn Boy’s Love, Damini charted in several countries throughout the year and the global smash hit Last Last gave the African Giant his first top 20 UK Singles Chart hit. The song co-written by producers Off & Out (brothers Mikael and Samuel Haataja), Chopstix, MdS, and Ruuben is certified Gold in the US(500,000), as of November 7 by the RIAA, Platinum in Canada (80,000), and Platinum in the U.K.(600,000) as of December 2, 2022. It has also picked up Gold certifications in France (100,000) and New Zealand (15000).
His latest U.K. certification is “Own It” with Stormzy and Ed Sheeran which is now certified 3x Platinum in the U.K. for selling more than 1,800,000 units.
“Wait For U” samples Tem’s “Higher” which was released last July. The track is produced by Oddio and was one of the standouts on her 2020 EP, ‘For Broken Ears.’
Among the “key global African artists” in MRC Data’s report include Ckay from Nigeria, Aya Nakamura from Mali, Tamer Hosny from Egypt, Master KG from South Africa and more.
