For decades, African has gained worldwide recognition when it comes to the world music domain.
Africa has talented artists who are steadily representing the continent’s music industries.
The lists below are the top artist that has helped put the African music on the map, and they consist of:
1. Youssou N’ Dour
Youssou N’ Dour is a Senegalese singer that was born on October 1 1959. His vocal range and ability to introduce an international audience to the multi-cultural mbalax musical style made him famous.
Dour has a net worth of 145 million U.A Dollars, making him the first richest musician in Africa.
Youssou N’ Dour, a Grammy award winner, has produced 34 albums, 16 compilations, and 11 singles and Eps. He is a musician, songwriter, politician, occasional actor, and businessman.
2. Akon
Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam, popularly known as Akon, is a Senegalese American singer, songwriter, and producer born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 16, 1973.
Akon gained fame with his single “locked up” from his debut album trouble, where he mixed smooth R&B vocals with hip-hop grooves.
His consistency in the music industry and his clothing line “Konvit clothing” gave him room to peak N0.2 on the top 20 richest musician list with a net worth of 80 Million Dollars.
Akon’s debut album in 2004 appeared in different Billboard charts, and this alone was an achievement for an up-and-coming artist.
Akon, an artist with a music genre of R&B and Rap, has released seven albums, 15 compilations, and 55 singles and Eps.
3. Black Coffee
Nkosinathi Innocent Maphumulo, known better by his stage name black coffee, was born on March 11, 1976. He is a South Africa Dj, record producer, singer, and songwriter.
Black coffee got famous in 2010, where he played 60 hours non-stop at the Guinness World Record for the longest ever Dj set.
He went international after he won the breakthrough Dj of the year at the 2015 Dj awards in Ibiza and the best Africa Act at the 2016 Bet Awards in Los Angeles.
His significant progress was when the music rating authority sampled Drake to the mainstream audience on the rappers 2017 “Playlist” more life. Currently, he is an artist with nine albums, 20 accolades, eight singles & EPs, and still counting.
4. Don Jazzy
Micheal collisions Ajerah, a Nigerian record producer, audio engineer, record executive, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, was born on November 26, 1982, is professionally known as Don Jazzy.
He is the originator and the CEO of Mavin records and was co-owner of the inactive Mo’Hits records labeled with Dbanj.
Though he started playing the drum at age four, his road to stardom came into play when he partnered with Dbanj in 2004 to set up Mo’Hits Record label that made hit songs in the musical industry.
Don Baba J’s desire to be better brought the Mavin record into existence on May 7, 2012, where he produced a hit with talented artists.
Mavin records made it possible for Don Jazzy to boast of 30 million U.S Dollars net worth.
The Don has produced five songs, delivered 32 hit songs, and written three songs, and I technical. He also has one background vocal and six features.
5. Wizkid
Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, known as Wizkid, sometimes called Wizzy, Big Wiz, Machala, Baba Nla, Star Boy, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and recipient of various international music awards and awards nominations.
Star began his singing career at an early age with a church group. At age 11, he kicked off with OJB under the stage name Lil Prinz. His opportunity knocked after releasing “Holla at Your Boy,” a single off his debut album superstar in 2011.
Big wiz first worked under RCA and Empire mates’ record label before establishing his label with “Star boy entertainment.”
Wizkid has one Ep and four studio albums made in Lagos, a billboard charting album in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Wizkid’s efforts paved the way for him to become one of the best musicians in Africa in 2021, with a net worth of 7.8 billion naira’s.
6. Burna Boy
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, popularly known as Burna Boy, is a Nigerian singer, rapper, and songwriter who has been hyperactive since 2011.
Born on July 2, 1991, and was widely known in 2012 after releasing “Like to party,” a lead single off his debut album L.I.F.E.
Burna Boy got his international exposure with his 2018 outside and the exposure extended with the 2019 African giant that gave him a first appearance at California’s Coachella festival.
He also won Grammy with his twice as tall album after the previous award nomination.
7. Nasty C
Nasty C is a young rapper to grace the South African music industry and was born in Soweto on February 11, 1997.
He derived inspiration from Drake, Lil Wayne, and Kendrick Lamar, and at the age of 15, he released his debut mixtape in 2012.
Nasty C earned his special acknowledgment in 2018 for his sophomore rap strings and Bling, which brought home two South African music awards.
Nasty C left his label “Mabala Noise” to music giant universal, where critics praised his second album.
Nasty C “jungle” music video released in 2018 garnered 237,000 views on YouTube in under ten days, making it one of the most popular local tracks on the site.
In recent years, Nasty C has had four albums, 21 singles & Ep with different features.
8. Sarkodie
Sarkodie is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and one of the most successful African rappers with numerous awards.
Sarkodie is one of the artists leading Ghana music to the edge of African music.
In 2008, his publicity increased after rejecting the job offer of an advertising firm over music. By 2010, he already had several collaborations to nominate five significant awards at the 2010 Ghana music award with his debut album.
He also appeared on the international airing of the 2010 Best Hip Hop award.
Sarkodie first started his career as an underground rapper before he made history with his hit song “You Go Kill Me,” an award-winning most popular song of the year in 2012.
His positive effect on the Ghanaian music industry gave him Artist of the Decade from the Vodafone Ghana Music Award.
Sarkodie is an artist with six studio charting albums, two live albums &EPs, and one collaborative album with 15 million us dollars of net worth.
9. Olamide Gbenga Adedeji
Olamide is also known as Olamide Baddo, is a Nigerian artist that records Yoruba and English.
He first released Rapsodi his debut album under the Coded Tunes record label in 2011, which led to collaboration with wizkid, ID Cabasa, 9ice, Dbanj, and Reminisce.
Before his second album was released, Olamide already had his label imprint YBNL Nation in 2012. Olamide’s career kicked off after his debut single “Eni Duro” the same year he performed at the Hip Hop world award in 2010.
The prolific rapper was the first in Nigeria to sign an endorsement deal with Ciroc and an ambassador to Guinness, Itel, Goldberg Lager, etc.
He has won numerous coveted awards and has nine studio albums, 1 EPs, 35 singles, and two collaborative albums.
He has been releasing bangers back to back from 2010 to date.
10. Davido
David Adedeji Adeleke, a.k.a Davido, was popularly known after releasing Dami Duro, a single from his debut album Omo Baba Olowo in 2012, which later won Best R&B. It gained a nomination for the best album of the year at the Headies 2013.
The award-winning artist has his record label Davido music worldwide (DMW) and has signed more than three hitmakers.
Though he worked under HKN, SONY, and RCA before his label launching, Davido, the second most followed African on Instagram, has released four Billboard-topping albums and has a music video “FEM” that garnered 1.8 million YouTube views in less than 24 hours.
The father of three and one of the most influential African has sold out the O2 arena in January 2019 and has signed an endorsement deal. Davido has released more than 23 singles, four studio albums, and more than 17 artists in his hit songs.
11. Diamond Platnumz
Diamond Platnumz is a famous Tanzanian bongo Flava artist and the WCB record label Wasafi Media.
Naseeb Abdul, also known as Diamond Platnumz, is an artist, dancer, a philanthropist who recently entered into a 360 partnership with a Warner music group.
Diamond Platnumz rose to fame after releasing “Kamwambie,” which later gave him three major wins at the Tanzania music awards.
He is well known for mixing American rap and East African taarab. The Tanzanian record-breaker has become the first Sub-|Saharan Africa to have a billion views on YouTube with 3.6 million subscribers.
He has 5.1 million us dollars as net worth and has released three albums and more than 30 singles.
Diamond Platinum has received 28 award nominations with 22 winnings with endorsements from Vodacom, Red Gold, etc.
12. Fally Ipupa N’simba
Fally Ipupa N’simba is a Congolese singer that was on December 14, 1977, at Kinshasa Zaire.
He became prominent after getting a gold record for having sold one hundred thousand copies of his first Solo album “Droit Chemin.”
At the early stage of Fally’s musical career in 2007, he has received numerous awards and nominations.
Till 2006, he was still a member of Quartier Latin International, and with his Solo success, he became the most famous artist in Congo.
After the release of his second studio album Arsenal De Belles Melodies, Fally gained more recognition.
After Sally had won the best artist category in the Afrimma award in July 2014, he got an invite from President Obama for the US-African summit meeting in August 2014.
Fally’s melodic Congolese rumba and hip hop have produced six no skip albums and many singles and features.
13. Amr Diab
Amr Diab is a singer and songwriter from Egypt and was born on October 11, 1961.
He is an all-time best-selling musical artist from Egypt, and he’s often called the father of Mediterranean music, especially with his international hit “Nour El Ain.”
The Mediterranean style has Arabic and Western rhythms mixed. At 6, Amr Diab had already performed the Egyptian national anthem, where the Governor awarded him a guitar at the July 23 Festival for an excellent performance.
Tamer Abdel Latif, known as Amr Diab, gained acceptance beyond Arabic-speaking countries after his first album Nour El Ain.
The album made him the winner of the world music ward and also validated his international success.
Amr Diab is an A-list artist with 30 albums, 36 singles, and numerous translated songs.
He has also bagged seven world music Awards, six African Music Awards, and one Guinness world record with over forty million dollars as net worth.
14. Tiwa Savage
Tiwatope Savage is an African singer and songwriter from Nigeria, born on February 5, 1980.
After Tiwa graduated from Berklee College of music, she first signed publishing dead with song in 2009.
She moved to Nigeria in 2012 and signed with Mavin Records with an appearance on the label’s 2012 compilation album.
Tiwa Savage released her debut “Once upon a time” in July 2013 with seven hit singles.
The album was good enough to get nominations from the 2014 Nigeria Entertainment Award and Headies 2014.
In 2016, Tiwa signed a management deal with Roc Nation, and by 2017 she released her debut EP, “Sugarcane.”
In November 2018, Tiwa became the first woman to win Best African Act at the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards.
Tiwa gave a double edge sword announcement in 2019; first is her exit from Mavin and signing a new record label, universal music group.
Without a doubt, Tiwa Savage is one of the biggest fish in the music industry with a style that blends with Afro Pop, Pop, and Afrobeat.
The Alpha female has five albums and an EP with singles more than twelve and numerous features.
15. Innoss ‘B
Innocent Blume, known by his stage name Innss’B is precisely a singer and rapper from central African Congo.
He started loving music through his mother, a church singer, and his father, who was a Pop musician. For steady growth, he joined his older brother as Maisha soul at the age of seven.
With 13 million Via SMS, Innoss’B won the Vodacom Super Star in Congo at age 12. He was then signed to a management contract with inter globe music in 2013, where he recorded and toured with Akon.
Innoss’B rose to fame in 2010 at a very young age after winning the first season of the Vodacom Superstars talent contest, launched by the Grammy winner Akon.
He was also privileged to join Akon on stage at the 2010 world cup in South African. He has released twenty-three albums; among them are 1 EP, ten singles, etc.
16. Kizz Daniel
Oluwatobiloba Daniel, with the stage name Kizz Daniel, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter.
He left the G-worldwide Entertainment Record label signed in 2013 over a contract dispute and established the fly Boy Inc record label in November 2017.
Kizz Daniel became famous with his second hit single, “Woju,” which led to a remix where Tiwa Savage and Davido were featured.
He released his first album, “New Era,” in 2016, and by 2018, Kizz Daniel released his second album, “No Bad Songz,” the first under Flyboy Inc, which charted No one on the world album chart before 24 hours.
Kizz Daniel is pretty known for his singles “Woju” and “Yeba.” He has three albums, some features, and singles.
Kizz Daniel is a father of triplets through he lost one with a net worth of 1.5 Million Us Dollars.
17. Shatta Wale
Charles Nii Amrach Mensah is a Ghanaian reggae dancehall artist currently known as Shatta Wale.
His hit single “Dancehall King” made him a public figure and also got him the year’s artist in the Vodafone Ghana Music Award 2014 edition.
Shatta Wale collaborated with Beyonce and has won the best virtual entertainer of the Inter Reggae and World music Award (IRAWMA).
Shatta Wale is the first artist in Ghana to organize a digital concert on YouTube, has multiple endorsements, multiple awards, and nominations.
In 2004, he released the hit track “Bandana from Ghana,” It had a significant hearing in the Ghanian music industry.
Shatta Wale has a net worth of 11 million US dollars. He can boast of four albums, more than forty-three singles, and still counting.
18. Simi
The African music artist and songwriter Simi was born on April 19, 1988. Simisola Kosoko, professionally known as Simi, first started as a gospel singer and was well known after “Tiff,” which got nomination from the headies 2015.
Her five-track EP restless rewarded her record deal with X3M music in 2014, which expired in May 2019 before launching her independent label in June 2019.
Simi established her record label Brat in 2019 after releasing her third album, which corresponded with her thirty-first birthday in April 2019.
Also, she is a sound engineer that has gained public acknowledgment for mixing and mastering Adekunle Gold’s debut studio album, which also happens to be the husband and currently a father to their daughter Adejare.
Simi, the Afro Pop artist, has multiple awards, nominations, four studio albums, 20 singles, and numerous features.
Bottom Line
Different countries widely accept the African music genre as it remains an incomparable source of joy globally.
Statistic has proved that music is a promising path for an artist with bangers. The list above shows that talent, exposure, and consistency spring a comfortable lifestyle.
