Afrobeats
Afrobeats is the name for modern West African pop, mainly from Nigeria and Ghana, built on bouncing drum patterns, melodic vocals and electronic production.
It draws on highlife, hip hop, dancehall, R&B and house, with lyrics in English, Pidgin and local languages such as Yoruba and Twi. The sound took shape in Lagos and Accra in the 2000s and spread worldwide in the 2010s, partly through the African diaspora in London. Despite the similar name it is not the same as Afrobeat, the 1970s band style created by Fela Kuti.
Artists it is known for: Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido, Tiwa Savage.
- Family
- African
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- Nigeria and Ghana, 2000s
- Also called
- Afro-fusion
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 4%
About 3,500 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have afrobeats among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Afrobeats artists
Tyla
Burna Boy
Tems
Rema
Asake
Wizkid
Odeal
Davido
Ayra Starr
Fireboy DMLThe afrobeats artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.