Play Fela Kuti’s Water No Get Enemy and then Rema’s Calm Down. The songs come from different generations and sound very different, but together they tell part of a bigger story about the rise of West African music.
That story stretches from highlife and juju to Fela’s Afrobeat, the Nigerian pop boom of the 2000s and the global success now associated with Afrobeats.
The distinction between Afrobeat and Afrobeats matters. They are connected, but they are not the same genre.
Before Afrobeats
Long before Afrobeats became an international term, highlife was already popular across West Africa.
The sound became particularly influential in Ghana and Nigeria, combining African rhythms with guitars, horns and jazz influences. Musicians such as Ghana’s E.T. Mensah and Nigeria’s Victor Olaiya became important figures.
Nigeria also developed other popular traditions, including juju. King Sunny Adé and Ebenezer Obey helped take the genre to wider audiences, drawing on Yoruba musical traditions alongside guitars, percussion and talking drums.
These sounds formed part of the musical landscape that influenced later generations of West African artists.
Then came Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
Fela and the rise of Afrobeat
Fela helped develop and define Afrobeat, without the final “s”, in the late 1960s and 1970s.
His music brought together jazz, funk, highlife and African rhythms. Long instrumental sections, powerful horns and politically charged lyrics became central to his work.
Songs including Zombie and Coffin for Head of State established Fela as one of Nigeria’s most outspoken musical critics of military rule and political power.
Fela died in 1997, but his influence continued. His music inspired generations of performers in Africa and beyond.
Modern Afrobeats, however, emerged later from a much wider mixture of sounds and influences.
A new Nigerian pop generation
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Nigerian popular music was changing again.
Plantashun Boiz, 2Baba, The Remedies, P-Square and D’banj were among the acts that helped shape a new mainstream sound. Hip-hop, R&B and dancehall mixed with Nigerian languages, Pidgin English and local rhythms.
2Baba’s African Queen became one of the defining Nigerian pop songs of the period.
D’banj and producer Don Jazzy later built Mo’Hits Records into an influential force in Nigerian pop. In 2012, D’banj’s Oliver Twist reached No. 9 on the UK Official Singles Chart, according to Official Charts — an important commercial breakthrough for Nigerian pop in Britain.
How Afrobeats found an international identity
During the early 2010s, Afrobeats gained wider use as an umbrella term for contemporary African pop sounds, particularly those coming from Nigeria and Ghana.
British-Ghanaian broadcaster DJ Abrantee became closely associated with popularising the term in Britain through radio. The label gave DJs, promoters and listeners a simple way to describe music that crossed several styles.
London became an important international base for the movement. African communities, clubs, university events, DJs and radio helped Nigerian and Ghanaian music find new audiences.
The diaspora was not simply listening to the music. It was helping build an international market around it.
A new generation goes global
Wizkid broke through with Holla at Your Boy, while Davido followed with songs including Dami Duro. Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade, Olamide and Tekno also brought their own styles to a rapidly expanding scene.
International collaborations followed.
Drake’s One Dance, featuring Wizkid and Kyla, became a worldwide hit in 2016 and pushed Wizkid further into the international spotlight.
Burna Boy later became another major global figure. His album Twice as Tall won Best Global Music Album at the 2021 Grammy Awards. Wizkid also became a Grammy winner through Beyoncé’s Brown Skin Girl.
African pop was no longer simply trying to enter the global mainstream. Its leading artists were becoming part of it.
Rema and the streaming generation
The next wave moved even faster.
CKay’s Love Nwantiti, Wizkid and Tems’ Essence, Fireboy DML’s Peru and Ayra Starr’s Rush found listeners far beyond Africa.
Then came Rema’s Calm Down.
The remix featuring Selena Gomez became the first African artist-led track to reach one billion streams on Spotify in 2023.
The wider numbers show how dramatically the audience has grown. Spotify reported in 2026 that Afrobeats streams on its platform had increased 349-fold between 2014 and 2025.
Streaming has also removed many geographical barriers. Music made in Lagos or Accra can now reach millions of listeners without depending first on traditional Western radio or record-store distribution.
What comes next?
Afrobeats continues to change.
Artists increasingly mix it with amapiano, R&B, hip-hop, dancehall, fuji and other sounds. Some musicians also resist having every form of contemporary African pop placed under one label.
What is clearer is how far the music has travelled.
Highlife and juju helped shape its musical foundations. Fela helped turn Afrobeat into an internationally recognised musical and political force. Nigerian pop stars of the 1990s and 2000s opened new commercial possibilities. The African diaspora helped build audiences abroad, while streaming opened the music to millions more listeners.
Today, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Tems, Ayra Starr, Rema and a growing generation of African artists operate in a very different music industry.
Afrobeats is no longer waiting to be introduced to the world.
It is already part of global pop.
