Katlego Sekhu

By now, it should be undebatable that Amapiano is South Africa’s biggest export ever when it comes to music. Over the last five years, the genre has exploded, exposed, and introduced a lot of talented local artists, such as Kabza De Small and Kelvin Momo.
The CEO and founder of Spotify, Daniel Ek recently celebrated the genre’s success on social media.
Ek shared some astonishing statistics, noting that Amapiano garnered a staggering 1.4 billion streams on Spotify in 2023 alone.
What’s even more impressive is that 55% of these streams came from markets outside of Africa.
“The Amapiano genre has seen a crazy explosion over the last decade coming out of South Africa. In 2023 alone, the genre had 1.4 billion streams on Spotify – with 55% of that being played in markets outside of Africa. Very cool to see it taking the global stage!”
Daniel Ek
The Amapiano genre has seen a crazy explosion over the last decade coming out of South Africa. In 2023 alone, the genre had 1.4 billion streams on Spotify – with 55% of that being played in markets outside of Africa. Very cool to see it taking the global stage! Check out more…
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) June 25, 2024
In 2021, a video made the rounds on social media where Kabza De Small was seen chatting with Oskido about how the Amapiano genre came about.
In the clip, the award-winning producer reveals that the genre started in the townships.
“Amapiano started in the townships. A track will be 125 BPM but you will find the deejays playing it at 115.
“You’ll get the mixtapes and find yourself enjoying the slow tempo. Once you slow down the tempo, the bass becomes 45 and producers ended up producing songs in slow tempo,” he explains.
“First it was the remixes, and then Mdu came up with the log drum. I don’t know how he figured it out.
Kabza De Small
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