A sign of genre’s growth as Amapiano takes over London’s Southwark Park

Similar to sport, music has a way of bringing people together and the celebration of the Amapiano genre in London on Friday had Africans dancing together at the Piano People festival.

“It’s an embrace of the full spectrum of Southern African dance music, from three-step Gqom to Afro Tech and Afro House. This festival is a testament to the depth and versatility of African music,” organisers of Piano People said prior to the festival.

Founded in 2021, Piano People is a dance movement that celebrates the Amapiano genre in the UK, growing its presence in English venues such as Drumsheds, London’s Printworks, Ministry of Sound and The Warehouse Project.

The Piano People in the Park line-up showed how big the South African genre has grown with a cosmopolitan line-up featuring London-based Spanish DJ Sofi MLow and Ghana’s DJ Kwamzy.

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The list of performers was also a succinct reflection of the genre’s origins being South African, as it was dominated by acts from Mzansi such as Oskido, Young Stunna and the headliners, Kabza De Small and Maphorisa performing as a duo, Scorpion Kings.

ALSO READ: Kabza De Small shows why he is the king of Amapiano

Creators of Amapiano

In July New York’s Central Park hosted Piano People which was also headlined by Kabza De Small and Maphorisa.

Last year US rapper Swae Lee had to apologise to a hoard of South Africans who swiftly called him out for crediting the Amapiano sound to Nigeria, instead of Mzansi.

The rapper, who is one half of Hip Hop duo Rae Sremmurd, tweeted he would be experimenting with the trending South African genre, but added a Nigerian flag to the tweet which didn’t sit well with South Africans.

woooooah I never said anything about who was the first guys I just said wait until y’all hear my amapiano songs 🧐 y’all reached for that one

— Swae Lee Lee Swae (@SwaeLee) July 12, 2023

His utterances fuelled a fire that had been long there between South Africa and Nigeria.

Earlier this year following Bafana Bafana’s semi-final clash with Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations which the Super Eagles won, the banter between South Africans and Nigerians reached a point where the West Africans started saying they own Amapiano.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Swae Lee apologises for saying Amapiano is Nigerian

In numbers

Amapiano is South Africa’s biggest musical export, with its viral dance routines and catchy beats.

• There has been an uptick in local music consumption in South Africa, growing by 101% in 2023
  
• The industry is still male-dominated but female artists are gaining pace. Average streams for female artists year on year increased by 49% in 2023
  
• Amapiano tracks have been added to over 14 million playlists. The 2023 vs 2018 growth is 566%
  
• In 2023, South African artists were discovered by first-time listeners over 735M times on Spotify.
  
• The number of South African artists generating over 100,000 ZAR in royalties from Spotify alone has grown more than 5x since 2018.
  
• In 2023, nearly 2,800 South African artists were added to editorial playlists on Spotify.

NOW READ: South African musical artists generate more than R250M from streaming in the last year