The term Afrobeats is applied to all sorts of genres, flattening them into one. Artists, media and the music industry must do better at showing off the richness of African pop<\/p>\n
In 2024, South African pop star Tyla won the best Afrobeats award at the MTV VMAs. Beaming in a yellow dress, she began her acceptance speech in a celebratory tone. \u201cThis is such a big moment for African music. The global impact of Water,\u201d \u2013 her hit single \u2013 \u201cproves that African music can be pop music.\u201d But as the audience\u2019s cheers swelled, she became more sombre, describing the moment as bittersweet. \u201cThere\u2019s a tendency to group all African music as Afrobeats,\u201d she continued. \u201cEven though Afrobeats has opened so many doors for us, African music is so diverse. I come from South Africa, I represent amapiano\u201d, referring to the country\u2019s rolling, sensual dance subgenre. Her passionate entreaty notwithstanding, months later she\u2019d reprise her win in the Afrobeats category of the American Music Awards.<\/p>\n
Tyla is hardly the only African artist to rail against the Afrobeats tag. Tems has spurned the term, describing her music as a cocktail of \u201cAfro, R&B, soul and alternative elements\u201d. Likewise, Burna Boy prefers to call his music Afrofusion, a fitting characterisation of the smorgasbord of sounds that converge in his music. Wizkid, Ckay, King Promise and Davido have also chafed at the term Afrobeats, yet it persists and holds back African music.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/b1d7d8a13a428766133dc299334f22e7ce6c362d\/482_0_4801_3843\/master\/4801.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=7d80766610c780295ca12053157da699\" "\\"The")
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"