Dancehall and reggae’s peak year was 1993 when the genres occupied 3.9 % of the Billboard charts. In the last year, even reggae’s gifted child Koffee had a hard time charting and maintaining a presence on the mainstream Billboard singles charts. Her debut album Gifted is the most successful reggae album released in the last year but non of her singles charted in the Hot 100 in the US. Shenseea was the last woman dancehall act from Jamaica to glimpse the Hot 100 with her Kanye collabs Ok Ok Pt. 2 and Pure Souls in 2021. A record previously set by one it wonder Miss Thing 17 years earlier with Beenie Man’s Dave Kelly produced “Dude” which peaked at No. 26 on June 12, 2004.
Meanwhile 217 songs charted on Billboard’s Afrobeats U.S. chart and many of them, like Last Last by Burna Boy, Calm Down by Rema and Selena Gomez and Essence by Wizkid, Justin Bieber and Tems swung over to the Hot 100 pop charts. For those who say Afrobeats is having a moment like Kranium in a Fix interview, that moment just won’t let up as the songs get better and the artists break more records in the U.S., while dancehall’s usual U.S. airplay picks have not been forthcoming since Koffee’s Toast in 2020.
Except for Sean Paul’s constant breakout singles, Jamaican dancehall hardly reached the top ten on the main Billboard charts when compared to other genres, but the airplay charts were always a calculated life savior when stations like Hot 97 would select one song for rotation every year. In 2020 Rolling Stone Magazine‘s Elias Leight explains the phenomena.
“Jamaican artists face a series of hurdles in the U.S….the core audience for reggae and dancehall rarely registers its excitement in a way that American business understands. Similarly, Jamaican singles will usually only play on “urban” radio during the summer, where programmers might reserve just one or two spots for songs that aren’t hip-hop and R&B.”
-Rolling Stone Magazine
With streaming fully integrated , Afrobeats dominance has become the sound of cities all over America with Tems, Rema and Burna Boy headlining the NBA All Star Weekend in Salt Lake City in February.
April 2, 2023, marks one year since Billboard enthusiastically launched the U.S. Afrobeats chart in collaboration with the concert festival brand Afro-Nation. In 2020 P-MRC removed the Billboard reggae singles chart without giving a reason but SVP of Charts and Development, Silvio Pietroluongo made it clear a year ago that, “Billboard is excited to collaborate with Afro Nation on the launch of the Billboard US Afrobeats Songs chart.” he continued, “As with much of the world, Afrobeats has grown tremendously as a genre in America and we are proud to showcase the top songs and artists with this new weekly ranking.”
So far his words have proven true as one of the biggest records in the U.S. currently which has dominated the Afrobeats chart and is now in the top 10 on the hot 100 is Calm Down by Rema and Selena Gomez. The chart creeper which has an original with Rema alone and another version with Selena Gomez was released August 25, 2022 has so far dominated 57% or 30 of the U.S. Afrobeats chart’s first 53 weeks.
According to Billboard who tracks the 50 most consumed Afro-fusion songs based and streams and sales in the U.S. with data from Luminate (formerly MRC Data), of the were 217 songs to have appeared on the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart since its inception 13 have been on the chart for a full year. Six of those songs became chart toppers, all of which were led by Nigerian superstars.
Tems was the only act with two separate chart toppers including one solo. The Nigerian singer/songwriter also won and NAACP Image award for Outstanding International Song with her rendition of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” done for the Black Panther Wakanda Forever soundtrack and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Chart. The song also debuts at No. 7 on the Billboard Afrobeats songs chart.
Tems made Hot 100 history when she became the first Nigerian to debut on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart via a feature on Future’s “Wait For U” which also features Drake.
Tems and WizKid are the only Nigerian artists in history to reach #1 on the Hot 100 and the two brought their magic to the Broccoli Festival last night in America’s capital, Washington D.C.
Wizkid also snagged an NAACP Image awardIn the category of Outstanding Duo, Group, or Collaboration (Contemporary), for his Chris Brown‘s collab “Call Me Every Day” beating out other notable entries such as “MOVE” by Beyoncé featuring Grace Jones and Tems and “Wait For U” by Future featuring Drake and Tems.
“Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah),” by CKay, was the first to peak beginning April 2, 2022 and revisited the top for six nonconsecutive weeks. “Peru,” by Fireboy DML & Ed Sheeran also peaked for six weeks, beginning April 9, 2022. The double platinum hit “Essence,” by WizKid featuring Justin Bieber & Tems spent two at the to first on July 2, 2022. Burna Boy’s summer smash “Last Last,” spent eight weeks at No. 1 starting July 16, 2022.
“Free Mind,” Tems spent a week on June 25, 2022 and “Calm Down,” by Rema & Selena Gomez has so far spent 30 weeks on the chart beginning Sept. 10, 2022.
The song was this week’s No. 1 and is the 8th most consumed song in the U.S. this week on the Billboard Hot 100. Calm Down’s global impact is also being felt in home territory on the Middle East & North African Chart (MENA) where it has 3 non consecutive weeks at No. 1 (12wks total).
The diversity of the U.S. Afrobeats singles chart and the consistent renewal and quality of the new Afrobeats songs make it easier to find success in contrast to the Billboard Reggae albums chart where Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley & The Wailers has been at the top for 52 of the 53 weeks last year. The Marley compilation classic first released in 1984, only made way one week (September 23, 2022) for California Reggae group Stick Figure‘s 7th studio album “Wisdom” [Ruffwood Records].
Ghanaian singer Stoneybwoy who is getting ready to release his upcoming studio album 5th Dimension with Def Jam and U.S. and global promotional support from Universal Music Group said Americans love Afrobeats because within it are the original ingredients of dancehall, reggae, hip hop and R&B.
“When you break down any typical Afrobeats song you can put every other music of black origin on there. You can find dancehall in there, that’s how everybody is gravitating to it, I believe so because everybody can find themselves in there knowingly or unknowingly. It has several branches and big tree,” he said.
