When it comes to popularizing African sounds and culture, you used to be able to look just to Kidjo and a handful of other artists. In 2024, Kidjo was in good company. Thinking back on the biggest cultural moments of 2024, it’s hard to ignore the many African women who were at the center of it all, from the Grammys to the Met Gala and the Olympics. Just a few highlights: In February, Tyla took home the first Best African Music Performance Grammy for her viral pop hit, “Water.” At the Met Gala three months later, she turned heads when she arrived in a custom Balmain dress that transformed her into a sand sculpture. After working with Rihanna, Beyonce, and Drake, Tems dropped her long-awaited soulful debut album Born in the Wild. At the Olympics, Aya Nakamura, who was born in Mali and raised in France, took center stage for the Opening Ceremony. Ayra Starr—who sings in English, Yoruba, Nigerian Pidgin, and French—dropped her sophomore album, before going on to dominate the festival circuit all summer.
Over the past decade, global African music has been dominated by Afrobeats, the catchy rhythmic genre popularized most by Burna Boy, WizKid, and Davido. Though some women succeeded, including “queen of Afrobeats” Tiwa Savage, the genre was dominated by men. In recent years, a new crop of female artists has emerged and with them, a mix of sounds—from Starr’s pop sound to Tems’ sultry RnB-adjacent sounds, to Tyla’s clubby Amapiano. Their ascendance in pop culture reminded us that there is no one way to sound or be African.
French-Malian singer Aya Coco Danioko, aka Aya Nakamura, in Paris in April.photo: JULIEN DE ROSA/Getty Images
