Africa Month: Apple Music to celebrate roots of modern African music

Over the month, four leading musicians from West, Central, East, North and Southern Africa will each curate exclusive guest playlists that highlight the roots of the respective genres from their region. 

The artists selected to curate the playlists are Seun Kuti (Afrobeats), Nduduzo Makhathini (Mzansi jazz), Alikiba (bongo flava), Fally Ipupa (ndombolo) and Bilal Sghir (raï music).

“From amapiano to Afrobeats and bongo flava to alté, Apple Music will be hitting the rewind button by celebrating the music and artists from the yesteryear who played a critical role in shaping the sounds of modern African music,” Apple Music said.

Origins will be complemented by an overarching playlist featuring the biggest and best African songs the world has come to know and love. 

It will also feature two exclusive home sessions from Nigeria’s Young Jonn and South Africa’s Bongeziwe Mabandla. Young Jonn will perform Lagbaja’s ‘Never Far Away’, Beautiful Nubia’s ‘What a Feeling’ and his hit single ‘Xtra Cool’. Bongeziwe will do Brenda Fassie’s ‘Too Late For Mama’, Shwi no Mtekhala’s ‘Ngafa’ and his track ‘soze’.

Tanzanian artist Alikiba said he was looking forward to the assignment because bongo flava had played a huge role in the development of African music and in presenting African culture to the world. 

Seun Kuti, who is the son of Nigerian legend Fela Kuti, says Afrobeats has played a great role in the success of African music generally while showing the cultural and political consciousness of African people.

For South African artist Nduduzo Makhathini, jazz symbolises a refusal to disconnect from African origin, terming it “a product of black memory and solidarities over the Atlantic [and] a way of being free, an opportunity to co-create one’s reality.”

Algerian singer Bilal Sghir describes raï music as a vehicle for conveying social reality without taboos or censorship, and a language for the young and young at heart.