Category: Artist Development Programs
Providing resources and information about programs that support the development and growth of emerging music artists.
Nairobi ’s R&B Scene Is Building Its Own Path to the Global Market
Nairobi’s R&B scene for years has had the talent but lacked the structures needed to move artists from local discovery to sustainable international careers. That gap pushed people such as Faiza Hersi to build those structures from the ground up. Her work began with Nairobi R&B, an event platform that emerged in 2019 when R&B…
Davido, Dangote, and the New Grammar of Afrobeats Influence
Davido did not go to Times Square to sing. He went to stand beside a billionaire, beneath a message that had nothing to do with music: “Made in Nigeria. Built for the World.” No stage. No setlist. No crowd chanting his name. Just a Nasdaq billboard, a refinery IPO, and two Nigerian men who have…
In Malawi, Tiwa Savage Saw Survivors Building What Comes Next
Tiwa Savage arrived in Malawi expecting to cry. She had prepared herself for it. As she later recalled, she had even packed extra tissues because she expected the stories of women and girls who had experienced violence to overwhelm her. Instead, after spending four days meeting survivors, activists, students, creatives, government officials and representatives of…
Beyond the Anglophone Lens: MAMA AFRICA 26 Builds a Meeting Point for Lusophone African Culture in Lisbon
Across cinema, music, literature, fashion, food and art, the second edition of MAMA AFRICA offered something more consequential than another European celebration of “African culture”: a meeting point shaped around Africa’s Portuguese-speaking cultural worlds and the diasporic city they have helped build. African culture has never spoken in one language. Yet as African music and…
When Ayra Starr Met Zohran Mamdani, Two African Journeys Converged in New York
Nigerian pop star Ayra Starr linked up with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, bringing together two young public figures whose careers occupy entirely different worlds but whose trajectories contain an intriguing point of convergence. One became a global Nigerian pop star. The other became New York City’s first African-born, Muslim and South Asian mayor….
From the Townships to FNB Stadium: Amapiano Builds Its Own Stadium Economy
It would be easy to describe the moment simply as another milestone in Amapiano’s extraordinary rise, but filling FNB Stadium tells us that Amapiano is popular. As Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa prepare to bring Scorpion Kings Live to more than 70,000 people at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium, Amapiano’s journey is becoming about more than…
Yamê: Building a New Language Between African Heritage and Global Music
There are artists who cross genres because the industry demands versatility, and there are artists whose music naturally refuses the borders placed around it. Yamê belongs to the second category. The French-Cameroonian artist has built his musical identity somewhere between rap, jazz, soul, R&B, French chanson, and African musical traditions. His voice can move from…
Custodian Gems: KAESTYLE Leads 12 Records Worth Hearing Before Consensus Arrives
With KAESTYLE on the cover, this week’s Custodian Gems moves through 6uff, Kayode, Taene, Pabrymo, OluwaMillar, Ef Moon, Abefe, Sigag Lauren, Lil Frosh, Lasmid and Hunnyboy – a selection interested less in who already commands the conversation than in where attention might be moving next. Discovery becomes less useful when everybody has already agreed on…
Martell’s Swift Academy Starts in Nairobi – But the Bigger Investment Is African Music Infrastructure
Created by Martell and curated by Africa House, Swift Academy has selected 25 emerging creatives and music professionals for its inaugural Nairobi cohort. Behind the mentorship, grants and industry access sits a larger question: what can global brands contribute to African music once sponsorship moves beyond visibility and begins investing in the people and infrastructure…
Jua’s “Eshi” Finds Pan-African Connection Without Asking Africa to Sound the Same
Bringing together Maa, Swahili, Sesotho and Amharic alongside musical traditions stretching from Kenya and Ethiopia to Lesotho, Mozambique and North Africa, on Eshi, Jua’s latest CHIKKA experiment asks a more interesting question about Pan-African music: what if connection does not require sameness? Africa has spent generations being described through its differences. Different languages. Different borders….